Shortly after the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Blakely v. Washington, 124 S.Ct. 2531 (2004), the Seventh Circuit became the first Federal Court of Appeals to hold that the Federal Sentencing Guidelines are unconstitutional as applied to a sentence that was enhanced on the basis of facts that were not ...

Petitioner, an inmate, was convicted and sentenced in state court for first degree intentional homicide and related crimes. Following unsuccessful appeals, the inmate filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C.S. § 2254.

The inmate claimed that his confrontation rights were violated by the introduction ...

Defendant appealed the judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida sentencing him to 216 months of imprisonment and eight years of supervised release after he pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of cocaine to a person under 21 in violation of 21 U.S.C.S. ...

Here, based on the Supreme Court's decision in Glover v. U.S., 531 U.S. 433 (2001), the Fifth Circuit abandoned its previous "significantly less harsh test" and adopted the "any amount of jail time test" to determine if a defendant was prejudiced.

Appellant inmate sought habeas corpus relief under 28 U.S.C.S. ...

The public and media possess a qualified First Amendment right of access to docket sheets. This presumption is rebuttable upon demonstration that suppression is essential to preserve higher values and is narrowly tailored to serve that interest. Court administrators have the authority to grant access to those docket sheets if ...

Petitioner inmate was convicted of knowingly altering a vehicle identification number, and possession of a firearm by a previously convicted felon. The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas denied the inmate's 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion, arguing that his counsel's performance regarding whether to stand trial ...

Petitioner alien sought judicial review of an order by the Board of Immigration Appeals. The alien's removal hearing was held by teleconference with the alien, his attorney and witnesses, and the government lawyer in Council Bluffs, Iowa and the immigration judge in Chicago, Illinois. Relying on 8 U.S.C.S. § 1252(b)(2), ...

Defendant, an employee of a registered securities broker-dealer, pled guilty to five-counts of securities and wire fraud. The government recommended a prison sentence at the bottom of the range of 33 to 41 months, applying U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual §§ 2B1.1(a)(1), (b)(1)(G), (14)(A)(ii), 3E1.1(1)(a), (b). Defendant argued that the United ...

Following his entry of a guilty plea entered in accordance with Fed. R. Crim. P. 11, defendant appeared for sentencing. He challenged the application of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual to his case, asserting such application was unconstitutional under the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Blakely v. Washington to the ...