US Supreme Court rejects Sholom Rubashkin’s appeal

JTA — The US Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by former Agriprocessors executive Sholom Rubashkin on his conviction and sentence for bank fraud.

The court on Monday rejected the appeal asking for a new trial and to shorten his 27-year sentence, which an appeals court had upheld as “reasonable.” Rubashkin’s request said it violates federal sentencing laws for a first-time, nonviolent offender.

The court offered no comment alongside its rejection.

In September 2011, the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis denied Rubashkin’s bid for a new trial in which he presented evidence that the original trial was unfair. Rubashkin’s defense cited the involvement of Judge Linda Reade of the US District Court for the Northern District of Iowa in planning the May 2008 federal immigration raid on Agriprocessors in which 389 illegal immigrants, including 31 children, were arrested. The raid on the Agriprocessors’ plant in Postville, Iowa, led to the company’s bankruptcy later that year.

Rubashkin, who headed what once was the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse and packing plant, was convicted on 86 counts of financial fraud in 2009. He is serving his term in a federal prison in New York State.