A few weeks ago Johnnynonos was talking about Joe Lombardo and I made the erroneous statement that "there was a mountain of evidence against him." There was not. I followed the FS trial and I don't know what I was thinking . Musta hit my head on something.

Jimmy Marcello was in about the same position as Lombardo. If memory serves me well, I believe all the govt had was Michael Spilotro's daughter recognizing his voice out of a recording of 5 or 6 people. Of course they had Nick Calabrese. At the conclusion of the trial, Judge Zagel opioned that Marcello had more ability than his co-defendants. Zagel also would not allow a voice identification expert to testify, saying he had nothing to offer the jury that would be relevant.

I listened to the oral arguments from the Seventh Court Of Appeals (online) and to be very frank, I was surprised at the weak presentation by the govt. It was very, very weak. Apparently they had put all their eggs in one basket with N. Calabrese and thought his testimony would result in convictions, and it did.

The three judge panel of Posner, Woods, and (cant't remember the 3rd one) upheld the district court's decision by a 2-1 vote, with Diane Wood dissenting. This was an interesting case because of the double jeopardy issue. Marcello and Calabrese had both done time for some of the crimes that were included in the indictment. But there were additional charges. IMO there appeared to be two issues: 1. Where does one conspiracy stop and another begin? 2. Did Marcello and Calabrese operate as independent street crews or did they commit crimes for The Outfit ? Posner and the other judge felt that crimes were committed by two different entities ( Street Crews and The Outfit) but by the same people. Judge Wood disagreed.

In my opinion these guys got what they deserved, BUT when you take a really hard look at the entire case, the govt may have been very lucky. Both Marcello and Calabrese had "pulled time" for some of the charges the govt presented, and the overlapping of conspiracy cases (RICO included), was certainly questionable.