Feldesman Tucker Wins Supreme Court Case

Feldesman Tucker partner Matthew Freedus secured a victory before the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Denedo (08-267). On June 8, 2009, the Court ruled that military appellate courts have jurisdiction to entertain coram nobis petitions challenging a criminal conviction based on a fundamental flaw in that judgment.

Jacob Denedo, a native Nigerian serving in the U.S. Navy, had pled guilty to theft offenses in court-martial proceedings in 1998. He agreed to that guilty plea based on his prior defense counsel’s assurance that it would not place him at risk of deportation. Several years after his conviction had become final, the federal government initiated deportation proceedings against him based entirely on his court-martial conviction.

On Mr. Denedo’s behalf, Feldesman Tucker attorneys filed a petition for a writ of coram nobis first with the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals and then with the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces seeking to have his conviction set aside. Both courts agreed that they had jurisdiction to consider his petition.

On review, the Supreme Court rejected the government’s argument that military courts lacked the authority to grant coram nobis relief. Instead, it held that military courts have the same power enjoyed by other federal courts to issue such writs and orders as are necessary to protect the validity and integrity of their own judgments. This includes the ability to reexamine otherwise final judgments through a coram nobis petition where a fundamental flaw in the judgment is alleged and no other judicial remedy is available.

Please click here for a copy of Feldesman Tucker’s merits brief and here for a copy of the Court’s decision.