Conviction and sentence for charges related to racketeering and obstruction of justice are affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded where: 1) the evidence was sufficient to sustain the jury's verdicts; 2) the racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, bribery, and wire fraud counts were reversed on the grounds that the government ...

In explaining his reasons for imposing a below-Guidelines sentence in a white collar crime case, Judge Gwin set forth a comprehensive analysis of the four mandated purposes of sentencing as enunciated in 18 U.S.C. § 3553.

In this thoughtful sentencing memorandum, Judge Gwin has set forth a detailed analysis of ...

The failure to tell a defendant of his right under 8 U.S.C. § 1229c to depart the United States voluntarily at his own expense in lieu of being deported constitutes a fundamental error that requires dismissal of an illegal reentry indictment.

In an important immigration ruling, District Judge Allyne Ross ...

Editor's Note: For commentaries on this decision, see

• "2nd Circuit Divides Over Warrant in Internet Child Porn Case," by Mark Hamblett, as published in the New York Law Journal, October 1, 2008, which is available online at http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202424935140 and

• "Good Faith Efforts," by Steve Statsinger, as posted on ...

While awaiting trial for the bombing of the United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, the defendant in this case, Mamdouh Salim, a reputed leader of Al Qaeda and a former top aide to Osama bin Laden, abducted a prison guard at MCC in New York, and stabbed him in ...

The defendant in this case, Tammy Levesque, was arrested for speeding in Maine. Because her pickup truck had been under surveillance by Federal agents for participation in a large marijuana distribution operation, a canine team was brought in and a dog immediately alerted to some 94 pounds of marijuana hidden ...

Here the Court held that a trial counsel’s affirmative misrepresentations regarding the immigration consequences of the petitioner’s guilty plea constituted ineffective assistance of counsel and entitled him to vacate his guilty plea.

This is an important immigration decision in which District Judge Greenaway addressed an interesting issue of first impression ...

The defendant, Heriberto Arroyo, a former police officer in Worcester, MA, was convicted by a jury on two different drug conspiracy counts. At sentencing, the district court departed upward from a Guideline range of zero to six months and imposed a sentence of nine months imprisonment based in part on ...

In a case challenging the length of detention of a defendant found incompetent to stand trial, denial of a motion to dismiss defendant's indictment and entry of an order committing defendant to further psychiatric treatment are affirmed where: 1) under the collateral order doctrine, the court has jurisdiction to review ...

For a commentary on this decision, see "Conditional Love," by Steve Statsinger, as posted on Second Circuit Blog, at http://circuit2.blogspot.com/2008/09/conditional-love.html on Sept. 28, 2008, as set forth below under Case Summary.

MacMillen pled guilty to possessing child pornography, and the court sentenced him to seventy-eight months’ imprisonment and supervised release ...

Conviction for failure to pay a child support obligation is vacated and remanded where: 1) the district court did not err in its rulings as to the good faith defense; 2) the rule of lenity required the court to vacate the conviction on the second count of the offense; and ...

In this sharply divided 9-6 decision, the Sixth Circuit declined to change the Circuit’s prevailing precedent that allows sentencing courts to use conduct underlying crimes for which the defendant has been acquitted to increase his sentence.

After a long wait, the Sixth Circuit has finally released its en banc decision ...

In this lengthy decision, the Court addressed a series of issues relating to the enforceability of appeal waiver provisions and held, in part, that a broad appeal waiver provision precludes subsequent challenges to conditions of supervised release.

In a noteworthy and thoughtful decision, the Third Circuit has addressed a series ...