In April 1984, Floyd Richardson was tried and convicted for the robbery and murder of a food store clerk that took place four years earlier. He was sentenced to death, although that death penalty was ultimately commuted to life in prison without parole. Following his conviction, Richardson began his appeal ...

This case represents another example of a growing undercurrent of judicial discontent about the Government’s absolute and unreviewable power to decide whether a defendant qualifies for a sentence reduction under U.S.S.G. § 5K1.1, based on substantial assistance. For the most part, however, the panel’s decision ducks any real discussion of ...

After the defendants in this case were charged with trafficking in drug paraphernalia, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 863, and related crimes, they filed a motion to suppress evidence seized from their warehouse pursuant to a search warrant. Their motion argued that the affidavit by which the warrant was ...

Here a sharply divided en banc court from the Ninth Circuit declined to overturn a panel’s prior decision (reported at 338 F.3d 1009 (9th Cir. 2003)) which upheld the validity of a challenge to Washington state's felon disenfranchisement law based on statistical evidence of discrimination within the criminal justice system, ...

After the Court had previously refused to dismiss the indictment in this case based on preindictment delay, it then granted a downward departure at sentencing based on the Government's unreasonable and unwarranted delay in prosecuting this case.

Defendant, who pled guilty to mail fraud, moved for a downward departure pursuant ...

Here the Court vacated Judge Sessions’ decision, previously reported at 217 F.Supp.2d 469 (D.Vt. 2002), in which he declared the Federal Death Penalty Act (18 U.S.C. § 3591-98) unconstitutional. The Circuit court ruled that even though the evidentiary standard set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3593(c) permits evidence during the ...

Groceman v. U.S. Dept. of Justice, 354 F.3d 411 (5th Cir. 2004) (PerCuriam)
Green v. Berge, 354 F.3d 675 (7th Cir. 2004) (Judge Evans)

In these two cases, state and federally incarcerated prisoners challenged the constitutionality of mandatory DNA sampling that was undertaken due to their custodial detention. In both ...

Defendant, having pled guilty to violating 18 U.S.C. § 2423(b), travelling in interstate commerce with the intent to engage in a prohibited sexual act with an apparent minor, appealed from the sentence entered by the District Court, applying a two level enhancement for undue influence on a minor, under U.S.S.G. ...

Groceman v. U.S. Dept. of Justice, 354 F.3d 411 (5th Cir. 2004) (PerCuriam)
Green v. Berge, 354 F.3d 675 (7th Cir. 2004) (Judge Evans)

In these two cases, state and federally incarcerated prisoners challenged the constitutionality of mandatory DNA sampling that was undertaken due to their custodial detention. In both ...

In this habeas case, the limited issue before the Court was one of those arcane "exhaustion" rules designed to sift out frivolous appeals by prisoners - namely whether the petitioner had "fairly presented” his Federal claim to the state courts, in the manner required by 28 U.S.C. § 2254(b)(1), to ...

The plaintiffs in this case, ex-felon citizens of Florida, on their own right and on behalf of others, sought review of a decision of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, which granted summary judgment to defendants, members of the Florida Clemency Board in their official ...

Petitioner prisoner sought a writ of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, which held that his 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action against respondent prison guard was barred by the rule established in Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994). In Heck, the Supreme Court ...