Although he's currently serving a three-year sentence in prison for willful failure to file his tax returns, Wesley Snipes has filed a certified petition with the U.S. Supreme Court. According to the TaxProf Blog the petition raises two issues:
Is an accused person deprived of the right under Article III and the Sixth Amendment to be tried only by a jury of the community where venue is proper, when factual questions determinative of whether venue has been correctly laid are determined solely by a jury selected in the place challenged by the defendant as incorrect?
Where venue is a contested factual issue in a criminal trial, does the government bear a burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt or only by a preponderance of the evidence?
I don’t think the Court will be terribly anxious to hear the case…
