Federal Criminal Justice Clinic Wins Seventh Circuit Appeal
On Monday, September 8, the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic and the Chicago Federal Defender’s office won a stash house appeal in the Seventh Circuit. This is the only still-standing appeal of a selective prosecution discovery issue since United States v. Armstrong, 517 U.S. 456 (1996), that the government hasn’t won.
In the FCJC case, United States v. Davis et al., the district judge granted discovery on a selective prosecution claim alleging racial profiling in the government’s targeting decisions in fake stash house robbery cases. The government refused to comply with the discovery order and instead asked the judge to dismiss the indictment without prejudice, then appealed that dismissal and the underlying discovery order. (This seems to be the same maneuver the government pulled in Armstrong itself.) The Seventh Circuit agreed with the clinic that they didn’t have jurisdiction to hear the case and dismissed the government’s appeal.
The opinion is attached.