Convicted Baltimore attorney Kenneth Ravenell appeals to Supreme Court

Baltimore attorney Kenneth Ravenell, who was convicted of money laundering about two years ago, has appealed the guilty finding to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a request for the nation’s highest court to consider his case, known as a petition for writ of certiorari, Ravenell said federal prosecutors presented evidence against him at trial that bridged the criminal statute of limitations. His attorneys filed the petition this week.

Ravenell argued he didn’t receive a fair trial because the judge neglected to instruct the jury to decide whether prosecutors violated the law in that respect.

A jury in December 2021 found Ravenell guilty of laundering one of his client’s drug proceeds. In June 2022, a judge sentenced him to almost five years in prison, but Ravenell so far has been able to delay reporting to prison by raising numerous legal challenges on appeal. As of Thursday, the Bureau of Prisons website did not list Ravenell as being in custody.

In July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit denied Ravenell’s request to argue his case before the entire bench. In a split ruling, the judges voted 9-5.

Three-judge panels of that court also rejected appeals from Ravenell in September 2022 and April. The April opinion was split, with one of the three judges voting for a new trial.

Appeals court judges previously called the legal issue Ravenell raised “an extraordinarily close question.”

When that court ultimately rejected Ravenell’s request to present his case to the entire bench, the only legal recourse that remained for Ravenell was to appeal to the Supreme Court.

But the nation’s top court accepts only a small fraction of the petitions for it to hear cases, with researchers at the University of Michigan estimating the Supreme Court grants roughly one of every 100 petitions.

In his petition, Ravenell’s lawyers described the lower court’s ruling as going against precedent set by the Supreme Court and running afoul of rulings from appellate courts for six other judicial circuits.

“All in a case,” his lawyers wrote, “where the jury, had it been properly instructed, could have acquitted.”

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers previously supported Ravenell’s appeal.

“Future criminal defendants in this circuit may suffer the same fate as Mr. Ravenell: the denial of the constitutional right to have a jury decide if the government has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the prosecution does not violate the statute of limitations,” the organization wrote in support of Ravenell’s request to argue his appeal before the entire 4th Circuit bench.

Shortly after Ravenell was convicted, the Supreme Court of Maryland suspended the prominent attorney’s license to practice law in the state. Maryland’s top court has not yet ruled permanently on Ravenell’s law license, but likely will revoke it for the remainder of his life if his conviction stands up on appeal.

With its guilty verdict, the jury found Ravenell led a scheme to profit from the drug proceeds of his client, kingpin and nightclub owner Richard Byrd, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute drugs and got sentenced to 26 years in federal prison. Byrd testified against Ravenell.

As he was being investigated by federal authorities, Ravenell hired prominent attorney Josh Treem and investigator Sean Gordon, but prosecutors charged them, too, after they conducted a jailhouse interview with Byrd.

The criminal defense community was quick to support Ravenell, Treem and Gordon, decrying the investigation as government overreach. Treem and Gordon were acquitted on all charges.

Several prominent defense lawyers spoke in support of Ravenell at sentencing.