International Legal Cases and News

• Avron J. Arave, Worden v. Maxwell Hoffman
  Maxwell Hoffman, the respondent was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. He had requested from the federal for habeas relief on the grounds that his counsel had been ineffective during both pre-trial plea-bargaining and the sentencing phase of his trial. So the court on finding the counsel ineffective on his client's trial told State of Idaho to resentence him. Then the convicted during the plea-bargaining requested to withdraw his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel and cancel his appeal so that he may proceed with the resentencing ordered by the District Court. The State therefore agrees that the instant motion to vacate and dismiss with prejudice moots Hoffman's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel during plea negotiations and asks that the motion of respondents be granted because his claim for ineffective assistance of counsel during pre-trial plea-bargaining is moot. The case was remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit with directions that it instructs the United States District Court for the District of Idaho to dismiss the relevant claim with prejudice.
  
• CSX Transport Action, INC .v Georgia State Board of Equalization Et al.
  For tax purposes country board evaluates the commercial and industrial property under Georgia law, but public utilities such as petitioner railroad (CSX) are initially valued by the State. In 2001 the state Georgia used a different method for valuation to determine that the market value of CSX's in-state real property had increased 47 percent, resulting in a significantly higher ad valorem tax levy. CSX filed suit that state was barred to asses rail transportation property at a value that has a higher ratio to the property's true market value. CSX's property was taxed at a ratio of assessed-to-market value considerably more than 5 percent greater than the same ratio for the other in-state property. District Court declared that the Georgia had not discriminated against CSX because the State had used widely accepted valuation methods to arrive at its 2002 estimate of true market value. Held that the state act allows a railroad to attempt to show that state methods for determining the value of railroad property result in a discriminatory determination of true market value.

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