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Punch and Jurists: November 17, 2014

Issue PDF
Volume 21, Number 17

In this issue:

  1. U.S. v. Bagdy, No. 13-2975 (3rd Cir.) (764 F.3d 297) (August 21, 2014) (Judge Thomas I. Vanaskie) (p None)
  2. U.S. v. Mayfield, No. 11-2439 (7th Cir.) (771 F.3d 417) (November 13, 2014) (Judge Diane S. Sykes) (p None)
  3. U.S. v. Gomez, No. 12-1104 (7th Cir.) (763 F.3d 845) (August 18, 2014) (Judge Diane S. Sykes) (p None)
  4. U.S. v. Medina-Copete, No. 13-2026 (10th Cir.) (757 F.3d 1092) (July 2, 2014) (Judge Carlos Lucero) (p None)
  5. U.S. v. Hudson, No. 2:13-cr-00126-ODW-3 (C.D.Cal.) (3 F.Supp.3d 772) (March 12, 2014) (Judge Otis D. II Wright) (p None)

U.S. v. Bagdy, No. 13-2975 (3rd Cir.) (764 F.3d 297) (August 21, 2014) (Judge Thomas I. Vanaskie)

U.S. v. Mayfield, No. 11-2439 (7th Cir.) (771 F.3d 417) (November 13, 2014) (Judge Diane S. Sykes)

This is an important decision about the availability of the defense of entrapment generally - but particularly in the context of a fake stash-house robbery orchestrated by the Government where its chief target was a person with a “serious criminal record.”

Here, by a vote of 8-2, the Seventh Circuit ...

U.S. v. Gomez, No. 12-1104 (7th Cir.) (763 F.3d 845) (August 18, 2014) (Judge Diane S. Sykes)

Here the Court adopted new standards for determining the admissibility of other act evidence under Rule 404(b) to assue that such evidence is admissible only of the proponent shows it is relevant in a propensity free way.

Federal agents suspected Nicolas Gomez of involvement in a cocaine-distribution ring operating in ...

U.S. v. Medina-Copete, No. 13-2026 (10th Cir.) (757 F.3d 1092) (July 2, 2014) (Judge Carlos Lucero)

Every criminal defense lawyer involved in drug cases should remember the name of U.S. Marshal Robert Almonte of the Western District of Texas, a self-described expert witness in the field of the “cultural anthropology and theology” of the “Mexican Drug Underworld.” Almonte has apparently become a legend in law enforcement ...

U.S. v. Hudson, No. 2:13-cr-00126-ODW-3 (C.D.Cal.) (3 F.Supp.3d 772) (March 12, 2014) (Judge Otis D. II Wright)

In this case, District Judge Wright used a different theory to attack the Government’s unseemly but growing practice of ensnaring the weak and gullible in its reprehensible plots to get more convictions. As he wrote in his opening paragraph:

“‘Lead us not into temptation,’ Judge Noonan warned. U.S. v. Black, ...