Dominique Mack v. United States
FifthAmendment DueProcess Punishment
1. Should the Court should grant certiorari in order to consider whether this
Court's jurisprudence concerning the admission of statements against interest
was violated by the district court's admitting into evidence the jailhouse
informant Farmer's testimony that co-defendant Miller had told him that
Mack killed Francis?
2. Should the Court should grant certiorari in order to resolve a conflict
among the circuits as to whether plain error is established where an
indictment fails to set forth an essential element of an offense, the district
court fails to instruct a jury as to an essential element of an offense, and a
jury returns a verdict of guilty without any finding that an essential element
of the offense has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt?
3. Should the Court should grant certiorari in order to consider a glitch in
the sentencing statutes, where the statutes impose a mandatory life sentence
"in the case of a killing" and the defendant has been convicted of a conspiracy
to murder in which there was no killing?
4. Does the imposition of mandatory life sentences for convictions of
conspiracies to murder where no one has suffered physical harm violate the
Fifth Amendment guarantee of due process, the Eighth Amendment
prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, and the separation of
powers doctrine?
Whether the district court's admission of jailhouse informant testimony violated this Court's jurisprudence on statements against interest