This is one of those roll-your-eyes cases that shows the gradual but inexorable erosion of the once Great Writ of habeas corpus. In place of rules and procedures that were once relatively straight-forward and user-friendly, the courts and Congress have devised a legal landscape that is now pockmarked with land-mines, …

Within the space of two weeks, two different judges in this case enjoined the Government from transferring 13 Yemeni detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, without giving prior notice to the court and to counsel.

Abdah v. Bush, Civ. No. 04-1254 (HHK) (D.D.C. 03/29/05) (Judge Kennedy)
Abdah v. Bush, Civ. …

Abdah v. Bush, Civ. No. 04-1254 (HHK) (D.D.C. 03/29/05) (Judge Kennedy)
Abdah v. Bush, Civ. No. 04-1254 (HHK) (RMC) (D.D.C. 03/12/05) (Judge Collyer)

Since 9/11, the United States has captured and detained literally hundreds of persons it has labeled as “enemy combatants”; and its determined - but shameful - efforts …

Section 3161(b) of the Speedy Trial Act requires an indictment to be filed “within thirty days from the date on which [the defendant] was arrested or served with a summons in connection with such charges.” Here, the defendants were initially arrested pursuant to a criminal complaint that was filed against …

Here Judge Rosenbaum denied the defendant’s motion to exclude a digitally-converted and -enhanced surveillance videotape under the “best evidence rule” contained in Fed.R.Evid. 1002. After a hearing, he concluded that the duplicate tape had been digitally converted and enhanced from the original by a specialist employed by the ATF; that, …

Defendant appealed the judgment of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York sentencing defendant to 10 years' imprisonment after he pled guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in violation of 18 U.S.C.S. § 922(g).

In sentencing defendant to 10 years in …

Petitioner inmate filed a 28 U.S.C.S. § 2254 petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging his sentence under California's "Three Strikes" law. The United States District Court for the Central District of California adopted a magistrate's recommendation and dismissed the petition. The inmate filed petitions seeking a rehearing and …

In this case, a convicted bank robber who was serving a term of supervised release, challenged the constitutionality of the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000, 42 U.S.C. §§ 14135 - 14135e (the “DNA Act”), on the ground that the extraction of his blood without any individualized suspicion of …

U.S. v. Laws, 352 F.Supp.2d 707 (E.D.Va. 2004) (Judge Jackson)
U.S. v. Scarboro, 352 F.Supp.2d 714 (E.D.Va. 2005) (Judge Jackson)

Recently, we noted a study by the Government Accounting Office (GAO) entitled "Criminal Debt" which called attention to the fact that restitution awards in criminal cases had more than quadrupled …

Defendant was sentenced to serve a 37-month term of imprisonment. After completing that term of incarceration, defendant was placed on supervised release for a three-year period. Defendant moved for an order pursuant to 18 U.S.C.S. § 3683(e) for early termination of his term of supervised release.

According to his counsel, …

Defendant was found guilty of drug-conspiracy, carjacking, and various counterfeit-clothing charges. The case had been remanded from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit after it found that the Government had failed to turn over Brady materials as to one prosecution witness but concluded there was no …

U.S. v. Laws, 352 F.Supp.2d 707 (E.D.Va. 2004) (Judge Jackson)
U.S. v. Scarboro, 352 F.Supp.2d 714 (E.D.Va. 2005) (Judge Jackson)

Recently, we noted a study by the Government Accounting Office (GAO) entitled "Criminal Debt" which called attention to the fact that restitution awards in criminal cases had more than quadrupled …

Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this search and seizure case was that the Federal government felt it necessary to intervene by filing an amicus brief, claiming that the United States had a “substantial interest” in the outcome of this decision. Here’s what happened.

This case arose out of a …

In his dissent, Justice Souter described the issues before the Court in this case as follows:

“From a time long before William Payton’s trial, it has been clear law under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments that a sentencing jury in a capital case must be able to consider and give …

Petitioner inmates filed suit pursuant to 28 U.S.C.S. § 2241 to obtain a writ of habeas corpus. The inmates were challenging the method of computing good time credits pursuant to 18 U.S.C.S. § 3624(b) that was used by respondent, the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The Bureau calculated good time credits …