Government Reserves Right to Appeal

(This information comes from a source who prefers to remain anonymous -Pete)

You may already know this but HERE'S THE NEWS: THE BAKER CASE IS NOT YET DEAD.

In order to preserve its right to appeal, the govt. had 30 days to file a "notice of intent to appeal" the dismissal of the indictment. The notice was filed July 19, 1995. This does not mean the feds WILL appeal, but for the time being an appeal is in the air. A reversal could find Baker re-indicted. A few calls today confirmed that Baker's file is currently sitting in the Federal District Court in Detroit. It has not gone up on appeal yet, which I believe would be in Cincinnati (6th District Court of Appeals).

Under the statute authorizing the appeal (18 USC 3731) the government must "diligently prosecute" the appeal (Due Process concerns). The time frame for "diligent prosecution" is a rather nebulous concept. The Supreme Court held that filing of an Appellate Brief seven months after filing of notice to appeal was NOT diligent prosecution. We now sit at close to three months.