Quattrone Wrongful Convictions Appellate Clinic Files Supreme Court Amicus Brief in Martinez v. United States

The Quattrone Wrongful Convictions Appellate Clinic, a premier initiative of the Ken Starr Institute for Faith, Law, and Public Service at Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, filed an amicus curiae brief in the Supreme Court of the United States, in Juan Martinez v. United States (No. 26-68).

Working alongside Caruso Law alumnus Jimmy Azadian ('01) of Dykema Gossett LLP and joined by leading innocence organizations and scholars nationwide, Pepperdine Caruso Law clinic students provided critical research and drafting for the brief. The brief highlights a critical legal issue: whether federal criminal conspiracy liability can turn on a defendant's mistaken subjective belief that lawful conduct was illegal, or whether liability must remain tethered to an objectively criminal act. The clinic urges the Supreme Court to grant certiorari to resolve a deep circuit split over this application of the legal impossibility doctrine and to safeguard individuals against overcriminalization and wrongful convictions.

Excerpt from the Amicus Curiae Brief in Martinez v. United States

"The requirement that criminal liability rest upon objectively unlawful conduct is more than a doctrinal formality. It is a fundamental protection against convictions where no crimes have occurred. History repeatedly demonstrates what happens when legal systems permit subjective indicators of guilt to substitute for objective proof that a crime actually occurred: innocent people are wrongfully convicted."

"Just as a presumptive field test cannot transform dish soap into cocaine, a defendant's mistaken belief cannot transform conduct that federal law does not prohibit into a federal crime. Legal impossibility enforces this boundary by requiring the Government to prove that the object of the alleged agreement was objectively criminal. Where an agreement's object is conduct the law does not forbid, no amount of subjective apprehension, secrecy, or mistaken self-condemnation can supply the missing element of criminality."

The complete amicus curiae brief may be accessed through the Supreme Court of the United States docket for Martinez v. United States, No. 26-68.