This decision involved the interrelationship of two provisions of Rule 11 of the Fed.R.Crim.P., which governs guilty pleas. Rule 11(c)(1) states that “[t]he court must not participate in [plea] discussions.” Rule 11(h), in turn, states: “A variance from the requirements of th[e] rule is harmless error if it does not …

In an important sentencing decision involving the scope of the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”) (18 U.S.C. § 924(e)), the Court emphatically cut back on the ability of prosecutors to use factual determinations relating to prior convictions to dsedtermine whether prior convictions qualify as a "violent felony" or a "serious …

The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual directs a court to “use the Guidelines Manual in effect on the date the defendant is sentenced” (U.S.S.G. § 1B1.11(a)), unless the court “determines that the use of the Guidelines Manual in effect on the date that the defendant is sentenced would violate the Ex …

In 1999 a special court-martial convicted Anthony Kebodeaux, a member of the United States Air Force, of statutory rape for having consensual sex with a 15-year old girl; and it imposed a sentence of three months' imprisonment and a bad conduct discharge. Kebodeaux later moved to San Antonio, Texas and …

In a decision that is noteworthy mostly for its continued erosion of criminal defendant’s Miranda rights, a plurality of the Court held that, in the context of a non-custodial, pre-arrest questioning, a person’s silence may be used against him absent an unequivocal invocation of his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. …

In Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000), the Supreme Court started a modern day sentencing revolution by holding that "other than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory minimum must be submitted to a jury and …