In this noteworthy decision, Judge McMahon patiently addressed and rejected a number of the Government's arguments regarding the impact of Blakely on the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. Among her conclusions, she stated: "I continue to believe - along, apparently. with several members of the United States Supreme Court, as well as ...

Defendant was convicted upon his plea to felon in possession of firearm and ammunition. In sentencing defendant, the court departed upward two levels based on its finding that a death resulted from the illegal possession. The factual findings relied upon by the court were not admitted by defendant or found ...

Rather that getting embroiled in the game of guessing what the Supreme Court meant - and how far its decision in Blakely v. Washington, 124 S.Ct. 2531 (2004) was intended to reach, the judges from the Second Circuit simply threw up their collective hands and punted the ball back to ...

Here the Court held that a criminal sentence served in a halffway house qualified as a "prior sentence of imprisonment" under U.S.S.G. § 4A1.1 for the purpose of calculating the defendant's criminal history score.

Defendant entered a plea of guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. Defendant objected to a portion of the pre-sentence report that proposed a two-level increase to the offense level based upon the assertion that defendant produced or trafficked in ...

The United States filed a writ for continuing garnishment of defendant's retirement accounts for the purpose of collecting amounts ordered in restitution.

Defendant was convicted of theft from a program receiving federal funds and ordered to pay restitution. The government attempted to garnish defendant's retirement accounts. In granting the application ...

Petitioner was sentenced with a recommendation to the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) that he serve the final 18 months of his sentence in a Community Confinement Center (CCC). Subsequently, the BOP placed tighter limitations upon the length of time prisoners could spend in CCCs. Petitioner brought a petition for a ...

Defendant appealed from a judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, that convicted him of distributing five or more grams of "cocaine base," in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841, and sentenced him to 360 months of imprisonment.

Because of defendant's status as a career ...

Defendant was before the court for sentencing on the offense of sexual exploitation of a child in violation of 18 U.S.C.S. § 2251(a).

The U.S. Supreme Court defined the "statutory maximum" for Apprendi purposes as the maximum sentence a judge could impose solely on the basis of the facts reflected ...

The defendant in this case was convicted of cash smuggling, 31 U.S.C. § 5332(a) and (b), making false statements 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(2), and conspiracy, 18 U.S.C. § 371 and he was was sentenced to three years of supervised release, five months of home confinement, a special assessment of $ ...

In this brief decision, the Sixth Circuit agreed with the Seventh Circuit’s assessment (in U.S. v. Booker, No. 03-4225 (7th Cir. July 9, 2004)) that Blakely v. Washington, 124 S.Ct. 2531 (2004), invalidates the Federal Sentencing Guidelines’ system of permitting judges to calibrate sentences based on facts not determined by ...