In recent years, as the states have struggled to find ways to curb the ever-spiraling costs of two decades of dramatically increased incarceration efforts, we have seen a proliferation of new laws, some of which are enacted with a vendetta-like urgency, which are designed to cut back on the rights ...

Plaintiff arrestee filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that his arrest, incarceration, and prosecution violated his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable seizure, and pursued state law claims for unlawful arrest and imprisonment. A jury granted judgment in favor of defendant officers. The United States District ...

Appellant police officers sought review of a judgment from the United States District Court for the Central District of California entered on a jury verdict in favor of appellee citizen in the citizen's action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for violation of her civil rights in connection with the execution ...

Here, despite finding the facts of this case "deeply troubling," the Court reluctantly held that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the petitioner's habeas claim challenging his being held incommunicado at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Here, the petitioner, a brother of a detainee at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, filed a petition for ...

Here, joining ten other Circuits, the Second Circuit held that Apprendi does not apply retroactively to cases on collateral appeal. The other ten Circuits (and the decisions that so held) are: United States v. Jenkins, No. 01-1722 (3rd Cir. 06/18/2003); Sepulveda v. United States, No. 01-2755 (1st Cir. 05/29/2003); United ...

Here the court vacated an abuse of trust enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.3 as any trust the investors placed in defendant was not based on a special relationship he had with them as a physician, but on their misplaced belief in his investment abilities.

When sentencing defendant convicted of wire ...

In Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 89 (1986), the Supreme Court held that a defendant's right under the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution is violated when prosecutors "challenge potential jurors solely on account of their race or on the assumption that black jurors as a group will be ...

In this brief decision, the Tenth Circuit vacated a fifteen level downward departure granted by Judge Martha Vazquez of the D.N.Mex. based on the defendant’s reduced mental capacity and her physical and mental conditions; and it remanded for resentencing based on the “appropriate degree of departure,” after conceding that even ...

Here, in the context of approving a downward departure based on aberrant conduct, Judge Patel used the occasion to blast the purposes and goals of the Feeney Amendment which "shucked" the experience of judges for the inexpebience of young prosecutors.

To date, we have seen perhaps a few dozen cases ...

More and more, we are beginning to see massive efforts by our Government to hide outright or to disguise beyond recognition the real repercussions and the true costs (both economic and social) of our nationwide crusade to maintain the highest incarceration rate in the world. Last week, two separate events ...

Here, in reversing a departure based on aberrant conduct, the Court stated: "The Guideline does not define 'extraordinary.' The Application Notes, however, explain that 'aberrant behavior' is specifically required to have three components:

'For purposes of this policy statement -- "Aberrant behavior" means a single criminal occurrence or single criminal ...

The defendant in this case appealed from an order of the District Court that denied his motion to modify his sentence, brought pursuant to 18 U.S.C.S. § 3582(c)(2). At issue was whether the application of a four-level sentence enhancement for possession of a firearm in connection with another felony, and ...

Here the Court granted injunctive relief against implementation of a new BOP policy that would have transferred 3 inmates from their halfway houses back to prison because the new policy violates both the ex post facto clause and due process.

Plaintiffs, all of whom were serving sentences in community confinement ...

In this case, three defendants sought review of a judgment from the District Court, which convicted them upon a jury verdict of money laundering and which resulted in sentences of 87, 121, and 78 months, respectively, in prison.

One of the defendants argued that the district court had erred by ...

A jury convicted William Thurston, a vice president of Damon Clinical Testing Laboratories, Inc., of conspiring to defraud the Medicare program of over five million dollars by tricking doctors into ordering medically unnecessary tests. The Guidelines called for a sentence of 63 to 78 months. The district court (Judge Harrington ...

This lengthy decision is noted principally for Judge Patel's review and analysis of the Supreme Court's decision in Schlup v. Delo, 513 U.S. 298 (1995) and her granting of a habeas petition based principally on the petitioner's claim of actual innocence.

This case is noted principally for Judge Patel's excellent ...