The defendant filed a motion under seal for a downward departure based on his HIV status. The district court sealed the motion. At the sentencing hearing, the court and the defense counsel discussed the merits of the motion, all the while straining not to mention the words "HIV" or "AIDS." ...

After the court granted the government's motion and ordered defendant to submit to mental examinations, evaluations, or interviews by government mental health experts pursuant to Fed. R. Crim. P. 12.2(c)(1)(B), defendant's counsel provided notice of her intent to assert her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination during those mental examinations. The ...

Here the Court affirmed the denial of petitioner’s habeas corpus petition over his claim that the trial court violated his constitutional rights when it excused a prospective juror based on his belief in exercising the power of jury nullification in appropriate circumstances. The panel concluded that while it did not ...

Setting the stage for a battle before the Supreme Court that is almost certain to happen, the Second Circuit held that prior felony drug convictions, which trigger a mandatory minimum sentence of lifetime imprisonment under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A), need not be charged in the indictment or proved to a ...

In a decision that strongly endorses prosecutorial control over plea-bargaining, the Court held that a district court may not punish the prosecution by giving a lower sentence because the Government engaged in impermissible fact-bargaining.

This 62-page decision addressed a number of issues that were raised by three different defendants who ...

This is another of a large series of cases in the American courts involving the alleged “enemy combatants” who are being held at various secret or secretive military prisons throughout the world. The instant case arose out of an emergency hearing requested by the lawyers representing four Saudi nationals who ...

U.S. v. Stephens, 421 F.3d 503 (7th Cir. 2005) (Judge Rovner)
U.S. v. Blaylock, 421 F.3d 758 (8th Cir. 2005) (Judge Riley)

Both of these decisions show that the courts are still confused about the scope of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986) and ...

Reversing a prior ruling by Judge Takasugi of the C.D.Cal., the Court upheld the constitutionality of two key provisions of the terrorist designation statutes, 8 USC § 1189 and 18 USC § 2339B.

In U.S. v. Rahmani, 209 F.Supp.2d 1045 (C.D.Cal. 2002) (P&J, 06/17/02), Judge Takasugi of the C.D.Cal. dismissed ...

Defendants inmate, his attorney, and visitors of the inmate, were charged and convicted by a jury of, inter alia, conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to murder and kidnap persons in a foreign country, and making false statements in violation of 18 U.S.C.S. §§ 371, 1001, and 2339A. Defendants ...

In this case, the Second Circuit upheld as "reasonable" the BOP's stingy interpretation of the good-conduct time statute (18 U.S.C. § 3624(b)). That statute states that a "prisoner who is serving a term of imprisonment of more than 1 year . . . may receive credit toward the service of ...

The defendant’s appeal in this drug case had already been argued when the Supreme Court issued Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000), which stated that other "than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must ...

The defendant in this case was charged with drug crimes after drugs were discovered in the car in which he was a passenger. He moved to introduce the testimony of a “well-credentialed sociologist” that "it is not unusual for immigrants, especially Hispanic immigrants, to arrange for transportation to travel across ...

U.S. v. Stephens, 421 F.3d 503 (7th Cir. 2005) (Judge Rovner)
U.S. v. Blaylock, 421 F.3d 758 (8th Cir. 2005) (Judge Riley)

Both of these decisions show that the courts are still confused about the scope of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986) and ...

In this case, Judge St. Eve, another recent appointee of President Bush, strongly endorsed the constitutionality of two key provisions of the terrorist designation statutes that were enacted in 1996 as part of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), namely 8 U.S.C. § 1189 and 18 U.S.C. § ...