After robbing two federally insured banks, the defendant in this case voluntarily notified police and confessed to the crimes. At sentencing he sought a sentence reduction based on U.S.S.G. § 5K2.16. The court denied the reduction reasoning that the bank robberies were not unknown offenses at the time the defendant ...

QUOTE OF THE WEEK - More than 60 years ago, Justice Sutherland described the idyllic - but rapidly vanishing - role of the prosecutors as follows:

"The United States Attorney is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially ...

Case refused to grant a sentencing reduction on the basis of Guideline Amendment 506 on the grounds that the amendment was invalid and exceeded Congress's authority.

This decision comes on a remand from an earlier appeal to the Court of Appeals, and on the remand the defendant argues that his ...

Case held that bad acts evidence need not be similar in kind if it is offered to prove knowledge or intent.

In this case the Second Circuit refused to vacate a conviction over the defendant's claim that a co-
conspirator's testimony describing the defendant's conduct in a prior unrelated crime ...

This case presents a creative and novel method of getting around the enhanced penalty provisions that apply in drug cases involving "crack", compared to cocaine. The defendant pled guilty to selling 57 grams of "cocaine base" and he was sentenced to 108 months imprisonment. He argued that when the Sentencing ...

Here's another example of the courts jumping on the bandwagon and determining that Guideline Amendment 506 as enacted is invalid. The defendant pled guilty to making a false statement to the Postal Service and possession with intent to distribute marijuana. Because of two prior convictions involving controlled substances, the district ...

This is one of those cases that accurately sums up the enormous odds that a criminal defendant faces when attempting to obtain a fair trial in America. Here, a number of convictions against three defendants were reversed in part because Judge Tanner, over the vigorous objections of defense counsel, allowed ...

Here the Court found no error in the district court's acceptance of statements of two informants to increase the drug quantities charged to the defendant, even though the Government itself argued that thie testimony was not credible.

This is one of those wild cases that tests the concept that evidence ...

In this case a licensed gun dealer who sold more than 100 guns to others who then resold them was denied a two-level adjustment as a minor participant under § 3B1.2(b). On appeal, the Second Circuit said that the ruling was not clearly erroneous. Citing the Ajmal case, it ruled ...

Here's another case that discusses one of the many amorphous concepts in Federal criminal law - the burdens of proof that apply when a defendant asserts an affirmative defense such as the "self-defense" issue raised by the defendant in this case.

The defendant was charged with two counts of being ...

Although the convictions in this drug case were affirmed, the decision is cited because Judge Motz
wrote one of her typically lucid decisions on two issues: the admissibility of a co-conspirator's hearsay
statements under Rule 801(d)(2)(E) of the Fed.R.Evid.; and the elusive meaning of the term "attempts"
under Federal law. ...

The defendant in this case was convicted of a drug conspiracy, and he appealed on the grounds that Judge Matia had erroneously admitted some taped conversations between him and persons who were involved in a drug conspiracy not charged in this case. The Sixth Circuit agreed and reversed the conviction, ...

The defendant in this case was originally convicted of the interstate shipment of adulterated orange juice, and his Guideline sentencing level was 19 - calling for a sentence of 30 to 37 months. At sentencing, the district court granted a substantial downward departure of 13 levels and sentenced the defendant ...

Case held that "the law of the case doctrine does not directly apply to resentencing" and that sentencing issues may be revisited de novo on remand from the court of appeals (Id., at 1100).

Here the Court held that to use uncharged conduct at sentencing, the Government must establish, by a preponderance of evidence, a nexus between that conduct and the offense of conviction.

This case deals with the use of "uncharged conduct" at sentencing under the concept of relevant conduct. The Court notes ...

The Court frames the issue in this case as "whether a judge can sentence a defendant for a crime of which the jury found her not guilty." In most countries in the free world the answer to that question would be a resounding NO - but the answer is not ...

In this case an inmate filed a pro se motion under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) seeking a reduction of his sentence based on the provisions of Amendment No. 506. The Court concluded that the Sentencing Commission exceeded its authority in adopting Amendment 506 on the grounds that the Amendment was ...

They never give up! In 1989, the defendant was charged with four counts of a drug conspiracy, and at the close of all evidence he moved for a judgment of acquittal pursuant to Rule 29 of the Fed.R. Crim.P, which was granted because the district court found that the Government ...

In a decision in which the D.C. Circuit overruled Judge Sporkin's granting of a downward departure based on extraordinary family and other circumstances, the Court also addressed the issue of aberrant behavior. It noted that the Ninth Circuit would include within what it describes as an an "aberrant behavior spectrum" ...

In his typical aesthetic style, Judge Selya rejects a claim that a previously entered FDIC debarment order precluded a subsequent criminal prosecution on double jeopardy grounds. The defendant argued that the permanent debarment order, entered under the authority of 12 U.S.C. § 1818(e)(1), was "punishment" - and thus barred the ...

This is a case that should wake up a lot of people to the heartless rigidity of the Guidelines and the "quality of our civilization." Amrhu Dyce was convicted of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine. Amrhu's Guideline range prescribed a sentence of 121 to 151 months (10 to ...

The distinguishing feature of this decision is the stinging dissent by Judge Tang who objects to the rather routine affirmance of the defendant's drug conviction, despite his conclusion that the conviction "was based entirely on circumstantial evidence, arrived at only after an initially deadlocked jury was given an Allen charge." ...

Court sentenced defendant to 12 months home confinement due to cumulative nature of medical hardships facing the defendant and his family.

In sharp contrast to the Dyce decision reported at 78 F.3d 610 (D.C.Cir. 1996), Judge Cacheris shows a lot of compassion and common sense as he sentenced the defendant ...

Case held that Government is required to prove at sentencing that cocaine base constitutes crack cocaine.

This case presents a creative and novel method of getting around the enhanced penalty provisions that apply in drug cases involving "crack", compared to cocaine. The defendant pled guilty to selling 57 grams of ...

Here the Court held that to be entitlerd to an instruction on entrapment, the defendant must present hard evidence of some improper "inducement" - which consists of an apportunity plus something else - typically excessive pressure by the Government.

Case held that Section 2K2.1(b)(5) does not require knowledge of the specific offense to be committed, nor does it require that it be the purchasers of the guns who commit the other felonies.

Among the sentencing issues reviewed in this case was the scope of § 2K2.1(b)(5), which provides for ...

In this case, the Seventh Circuit proudly echos a long line of recent cases that deny that there can ever be a defense of sentencing manipulation. First, the Court distinguished sentencing manipulation and sentencing entrapment. It stated that "sentencing manipulation occurs when the government engages in improper conduct that has ...