Cheikh Diop was arrested on March 19, 2008 by agents of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) who charged him, under 8 U.S.C. § 1226(c), as a removable alien who had entered the United States unlawfully and as an alien convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude, a ...

It seems that, no matter how many times the courts uphold the various anti-alienation statutes that protect certain funds from attached or garnished to satisfy restitution awards ordered in criminal cases, the Government simply refuses to take “no” for an answer. The defendant in this case, Jack Lee, pled guilty ...

When considering a departure for post-sentence substantial assistance, the district court may consider other factors in order to ensure that the sentence ultimately imposed accords with the purposes of sentencing that Congress has articulated.

Rule 35(b) of the Fed.R.Crim.P. authorizes a district court, on the government's motion, to reduce a ...

Here the en banc court, by a 10-1 vote, reversed an earlier, highly-contentious decision by a divided panel and held that a traffic stop is not a formal “arrest” for purposes of calculating a defendant’s criminal history category under USSG § 4A1.2(a).

In U.S. v. Leal-Felix, 625 F.3d 1118 (9th ...

Here the Court vacated a five-level sentencing enhancement imposed pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2G2.2(b)(3) for distribution of child pornography to a minor because the Government had failed to prove that the recipient was a minor.

In a rare narrowing of the scope of a child pornography enhancement under the Guidelines, ...

The defendant in this case, Asya Richardson, was the fiancee of Alton Coles, the reputed leader of a drug ring responsible for selling large amounts of cocaine and cocaine base in the Philadelphia area between 1998 and 2005. In the summer of 2005, the couple bought a home together. The ...

In this case, the Court addressed a question regarding the meaning and intent of 18 U.S.C. § 922(h), one of the many sweeping Federal gun prohibition statutes, which prohibits a person from possessing a firearm while “employed for” a convicted felon. More specifically, the question before the Court was whether ...

In this case, the Fourth Circuit held that an enhancement for obstruction of justice under U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1 is not a foregone conclusion when a defendant testifies and gives testimony that te district court determines to be false. Here, because the district court failed to make specific findings that the ...

This is an interesting decision involving a civil rights lawsuit, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983, brought by a New Mexico probationer, Ray Brown, against his state probation officer, Daniel Montoya, and the New Mexico Secretary of Corrections, Joe Williams, for various violations of his Fourteenth Amendment rights to substantive ...