United States v. Murphy
United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
768 F.2d 1518 (1986)
- Written by Arlyn Katen, JD
Facts
John Murphy (defendant) was an Illinois Circuit Court judge in Cook County from 1972 to 1984. In 1983, the federal government (plaintiff) accused Murphy of accepting bribes for many years to fix hundreds of cases’ outcomes, including traffic and criminal cases. Some evidence of Murphy’s case-fixing scheme stemmed from evidence about Murphy’s actions when he was assigned to traffic court. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and federal prosecutors staged some of the criminal cases as part of an investigation into the case-fixing scheme. A jury convicted Murphy of 24 out of 27 counts charged, including mail fraud, extortion under the Hobbs Act, and violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). Murphy was sentenced to a total of 10 years imprisonment, and he appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Murphy raised, among other claims, a challenge to the government’s evidence supporting the RICO conviction. Murphy specifically argued that the government presented evidence of his actions in traffic court even though Murphy was never charged with bribery offenses stemming from that conduct.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Easterbrook, J.)
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