At the beginning of this much awaited decision, Judge Boudin explained that the First Circuit had agreed to rehear this case en banc “to provide stable guidance in this circuit for the determination and review of post-Booker sentences.” Whether it provides such “stable guidance” is debatable. It is, nevertheless, an ...

After his conviction, the defendant argued on appeal that the Government had violated his due process rights by withholding critical evidence about the background of one of its informants who testified at trial. Before trial, the government disclosed the informant's prior convictions, including a 1998 drug conviction in Rhode Island. ...

In a thought-provoking and sometimes surreal 7-6 en banc ruling, the Fourth Circuit rejected the habeas claims of Percy Levar Walton, a Virginia death row inmate, that "he is both mentally incompetent and mentally retarded and, therefore, his execution is precluded under Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399 (1986) (prohibiting ...

Here the Court affirmed a suppression order barring the use of statements made by an illegal immigrant during a custodial interrogation after he was not read his Miranda rights.

Lin Chen, a Chinese citizen, was one of a number of aliens allegedly smuggled into Guam. He was arrested and taken ...

Here, once again, the Second Circuit lashed out at the incompetence and hostility of the immigration judges at immigration hearings.

Petition for review of a decision denying petitioner's application for withholding of removal is granted and the decision vacated for reconsideration where the immigration judge ignored a significant aspect of ...

After Jamal Norris negotiated and signed a plea agreement with the Government, a new AUSA took over his case for sentencing. The new prosecutor believed that his predecessor had given Norris too favorable a deal, so the government tried to limit the scope of the agreement. The district court granted ...

The defendant in this case pled guilty to illegal reentry into the United States after a previous deportation. At a criminal history category II, his pre-Booker Guideline sentencing range was 27-to-33 months. However, at sentencing, Judge Sam Sparks (W.D.Tex.) departed upward pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 4A1.3 from criminal history category ...

The Second Circuit vacated the drug conviction of a drug dealer, Jose Rodriguez, on the grounds that the state trial court violated his Sixth Amendment right to a public trial when it ordered that a screen be put up to prevent his mother and brother from viewing a prosecution witness. ...

This Eleventh Circuit appeal addressed an interesting claim of prosecutorial vindictiveness. After Javado Barner succeeded in getting the district court to dismiss most of the charges against him, the government obtained a superseding indictment (its fifth) that dramatically increased the severity of the remaining charges against Barner. Barner moved to ...

Sitting en banc, the Ninth Circuit addressed a unique question - but one that is certain to come up frequently in the future: namely does a suspect’s membership to a website that displays child pornography provide probable cause to search his computer?

The defendant in this case, Micah Gourde, was ...