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News
Bill Zuhdi is a trail blazer in law. Bill was the only lawyer in America sixteen years ago to recognize and raise to Federal Appellate Courts that increasing a defendant’s sentence under the United States Sentencing Guidelines without a jury finding that defendant guilty, even if the sentence didn’t go over the statutory maximum, violated the jury trial guarantee of the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and was wrong. Bill’s uncompromising objection to people being sentenced to prison time without a jury finding them guilty and his foresight in knowing that increasing a person’s jail sentence without due process of law was unconstitutional, statutory maximums notwithstanding, was proven by the U.S. Supreme Court to be right and has benefitted thousands of defendants.
On June 24, 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court rendered a decision in Blakely v. Washington, finding that a Washington state’s sentencing method that increased a person’s jail sentence without a jury trial was unconstitutional. At the time this case was before the U.S. Supreme Court, Bill also had a case pending on certiorari before the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. v. Floyd, which prior to Blakely v. Washington presented the wrong of increasing a person’s prison time without a jury trial in Federal convictions.
 In October 2004, the Supreme Court of the United States announced it would review a case to see if constitutional jury trial safeguards applied to federal criminal defendants whose sentences were increased without a jury trial. Immediately, ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings contacted Bill and asked that he appear on the show because it was understood Bill was the leading authority on increased prison sentences without jury trial violating the Constitution. Bill appeared on the national newscast and was interviewed, as he had been previously interviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Then in January of 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court rendered its decision in United States v. Booker/Fanfan which recognized the constitutional error applied to the federal system. Again, Bill was interviewed and appeared on ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings.
 Bill Zuhdi’s appearances on ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings in October 2004 and January 2005 (4mb each clip) (Get Apple Quicktime to view Video clips in .mov format.)
were selected by and are included in the Television News Archives of Vanderbilt University. The Television News Archive collection at Vanderbilt University is the world’s most extensive and complete archive of television news. The collection only holds evening news broadcasts from the major U.S. national broadcast networks: ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN.
See the New York Times articles on Bill Zuhdi's defense of boxers in the Grand Jury's Top Rank case...May 12, 2006; May 14, 2006 .
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