No. 19-850

Mark Joseph Derrico v. Georgia

Lower Court: Georgia
Docketed: 2020-01-07
Status: Denied
Type: Paid
Response Waived
Tags: arbitrary-enforcement civil-rights criminal-procedure criminal-statute due-process equal-protection prosecutorial-discretion statutory-interpretation void-for-vagueness
Key Terms:
AdministrativeLaw
Latest Conference: 2020-02-21
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Does the void-for-vagueness doctrine extend to cases where courts have rested on the authority of judges and juries to ratify arbitrary enforcement?

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

QUESTION PRESENTED Under Kolender v. Lawson, 461 U.S. 352, 357358 (1983), this Court has cautioned, “Where the legislature fails to provide ... minimal guidelines, a criminal statute may permit ‘a standardless sweep [that] allows policemen, prosecutors, and juries to pursue their personal predilections,” citing Smith v. Goguen, 415 U.S. 489, 575 (1974). The resulting rule—sometimes known as the void-for-vagueness doctrine—has proven to have a blind spot, a presentation in which clearly arbitrary enforcement is lost sight of in application. As in the instant case, the alleged victim meets the same criteria (the elements) of each of the statutes or offenses under which Petitioner Derrico was prosecuted. This is a sort of arbitrariness per se, in that Defendant was prosecuted and convicted and the alleged victim was not, though he could have been. The question presented is: Does the void-for-vagueness doctrine extend to cases such as Derrico’s where courts have rested on the authority of judges and juries to ratify arbitrary enforcement? In the decision below, the Supreme Court of Georgia wholly ignores arbitrary enforcement because it concludes that the evidence was sufficient to convict Derrico. The problem is that the evidence is also sufficient to convict the victim who was not prosecuted, on each of the same charges. ce) (II) Il.

Docket Entries

2020-02-24
Petition DENIED.
2020-01-29
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/21/2020.
2020-01-21
Waiver of right of respondent Georgia to respond filed.
2020-01-02
Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due February 6, 2020)
2019-10-25
Application (19A450) granted by Justice Thomas extending the time to file until January 2, 2020.
2019-10-22
Application (19A450) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from November 3, 2019 to January 2, 2020, submitted to Justice Thomas.

Attorneys

Georgia
Andrew Alan PinsonOffice of the Georgia Attorney General, Respondent
Andrew Alan PinsonOffice of the Georgia Attorney General, Respondent
Mark Joseph Derrico
Andrew Thelston Mosley IIMosley Law Offices, Petitioner
Andrew Thelston Mosley IIMosley Law Offices, Petitioner