"The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to decide two cases involving criminal defendants and their rights under the Sixth Amendment.
In Samia v. United States, the Supreme Court will consider whether murder defendant Adam Samia’s rights under the Sixth Amendment’s confrontation clause were violated by testimony about a co-defendant’s confession.
In Smith v. United States, the high court will consider whether hacking defendant Timothy J. Smith can be retried after a trial in the wrong venue. The Sixth Amendment provides that criminal defendants have the right to a speedy and public trial “by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.” Article III also provides that trials should be in the state where the crime was committed.
SCOTUS blog and Law360 (here and here) have stories. The cert petitions are here and here.
Samia was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a real estate agent in the Philippines. The government alleges that he is a “hit man” who “committed an array of crimes worthy of a James Bond villain,” according to SCOTUSblog. "
This article was originally posted in the ABA Journal.
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