MILWAUKEE — A sentencing hearing for former Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan scheduled for June 3 has been postponed. Instead, the defense is formally asking the court to either enter a judgment of acquittal or order a new trial.
Dugan's lawyers say one of the cases the government used to win a guilty verdict was overturned last month by a 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Watch: Former Judge Hannah Dugan sentencing postponed as defense seeks to reconsider conviction
The defense is invoking the "rule of lenity," a legal principle that says when a criminal law is genuinely ambiguous, courts should interpret it in favor of the defendant rather than the government. The defense argues that the fact that a federal appeals court reached an opposite conclusion on the same legal question proves the law is ambiguous enough to warrant leniency toward Dugan.
The newest filings in federal court indicate Judge Adelman believes there is enough in that argument to hear more in open court.
Dugan was found guilty in December of felony obstruction for letting a man wanted by ICE leave her courtroom through a side door.
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