This case is noted for Judge Boyce Martin's strong concurring opinion in which he roundly condemned “the practice of a judge walking into a sentencing hearing with an opinion already prepared” which renders the sentencing hearing into a mere formality.

The defendant in this case, Lashawn Wilson, pled guilty to ...

This colorful and unusual 105-page sentencing decision is noted for Judge Mark Bennett’s explanation of his reasons for imposing a substantial upward departure on a landlord-defendant who pled guilty to 18 counts of mail fraud, two counts of perjury, and two counts of filing false tax returns - arising out ...

This is another lamentable crack-cocaine decision that exemplifies the sheer inanity of the 100-to-1 sentencing ratio between crack cocaine and powder cocaine that existed for more than two decades until Congress finally enacted the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (“FSA”) on July 28, 2010.

Edward Brewer was convicted after a ...

Pursuant to the provisions of 28 U.S.C. § 994(o), the Department of Justice (DOJ) is required to submit to the United States Sentencing Commission an annual report commenting on the operation of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and suggesting changes that believes are warranted. When the DOJ sent this year’s annual ...

In this decision, the Second Circuit overturned an order requiring defendants in the Galleon securities fraud case (an offshoot of what has been labeled “the largest hedge-fund insider trading case ever charged, criminally”) to hand over to the SEC roughly 18,000 wiretapped conversations they had been given by prosecutors in ...

Here the Court held that an inmate who was never charged with, nor convicted of, a sex offense is entitled to due process before the state can classify him as a sex offender and thereby require him to participate in a Sex Offender Treatment Program.

Charles Renchenski is serving a ...