In its latest review of cert. candidates that have been relisted by the Supreme Court, SCOTUSblog noted some unusual activity with a case out of the Seventh Circuit that involves the application of Padilla v. Kentucky. The case is Mario Reeves a.k.a. Rio v. United States, No. 12-8543 (7th Cir case no. 11-2328). SCOTUSblog seemed to think that the Court relisted the Reeves case in light of its recent decision in Chaidez. Reeves is an example of efforts by individuals to expand the scope of Padilla to cover advice on consequences of a conviction other than deportation. In Reeves, the defendant argued that a prior state court conviction was invalid under Padilla because his attorney in that case did not inform him that his conviction could later be used to enhance a sentence imposed against him in a future and entirely distinct criminal case. It’s an interesting argument, but one that the Seventh Circuit did not buy. Notably, the Seventh Circuit made no mention of whether Padilla could even be retroactively applied to assess the conduct of the defendant’s attorney, whose role in the case ended some time in 2004; its decision seemed to assume without deciding that it did.
In any event, the Supreme Court docket for the case indicates that the defendant is now being represented by attorneys from Northwestern University and Sidley Austin. Perhaps this plus the relist is a sign of good things to come for Mr. Reeves. If anyone has a copy of the cert. petition in Reeves, I would really like to read it. In the meantime, the Seventh Circuit’s decision can be downloaded here.
UPDATE: The Supreme Court denied Mr. Reeves’ cert. petition on March 18, 2013.
Invisible Man 