This is one of those tell-tale cases that shows how law enforcement officials protect each other. The defendant in this case was one of approximately 20 rogue cops from New York's infamous 30th Precinct who were charged with various crimes. After pleading guilty to accepting payments from drug dealers in ...

This case is noted for its discussion of defendant's request for a "mere presence" instuction - i.e., one which advises the jury that presence at the scene of a crime and knowledge that a crime is being committed is not sufficient to find guilt.

"A defendant is indeed entitled to ...

This case is noted because of its excellent analysis of the Supreme Court's recent decision in Koon v. United States, 135 L.Ed.2d 392 (1996), perhaps the most important decision to date dealing with the authority of district courts to depart from the Guidelines. Here, the defendant embezzled some $607,000 from ...

In this case Judge Henderson held that California's mechanism for appointment and compensation of competent counsel were objectively deficient and therefore the expedited review provisions of the AEPDA did not apply.

This lengthy decision deals with still another untested (and scary) aspect of the recently enacted Antiterrorism and Effective Death ...

In this case, the defendants were convicted of making false statements to Federal investigators in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001. The issue on appeal was whether the so-called "exculpatory no" defense was a valid defense to liability under § 1001. The theory of that judicially crafted defense (which is ...

United States v. DeWitt, 95 F.3d 1374 (8th Cir. 1996) (Per curiam)
United States v. Meyers, 95 F.3d 1475 (10th Cir. 1475) (Judge Barrett)

In both of these cases the courts dismissed some creative claims by the defendants that their drug charges should be dismissed on the grounds that they ...

This case is noted because of its excellent analysis of the Supreme Court's recent decision in Koon v. United States, 135 L.Ed.2d 392 (1996), perhaps the most important decision to date dealing with the authority of district courts to depart from the Guidelines. Here, the defendant embezzled some $607,000 from ...

Case held that sentencing court did not err in determining that defendant acted as organizer, despite his contention that he acted alone, since the PSI Report indicated that other family members were involved.

This lengthy habeas corpus decision involves the fairness of a death sentence that was imposed after the trial judge refused to allow the petitioner to inform the jury that he was statutorily ineligible for parole. During sentencing deliberations, the jury asked the judge "Does the imposition of a life sentence ...

The defendant in this case was charged with a structuring violation and was sentenced under Guideline §2S1.3. By using "relevant conduct" the court increased the sentence based on other funds involved in the same course of conduct or common scheme. Here, the court says that the use of relevant conduct ...

Here the Court imposed limits on defense counsel's right to inquire into a witness's alleged rape of his stepdaughter concluding that the loathesomness of such misconduct does not necessarily bear on the capacity to tell the truth.

One of the issues raised in this case was the limits imposed on ...

QUOTE OF THE WEEK - An unexpurgated view of some of the problems with America's prisons.

"From the very beginning, conditions in our prisons were marked by overcrowding, fire hazards and poor sanitation. . . . Later in the 18th Century in what is known as the age of enlightenment ...

Case rejected a broad series of constitutional challenges to the provisions of the PLRA that allow prisons to escape from the effect of "prospective relief" consent decrees.

Following his controversial about-face decisions in U.S. v. Bayless, 913 F.Supp. 232 and 921 F.Supp. 211, the mercurial Judge Baer has created another ...

The defendant in this case was charged with a variety of tax and bankruptcy fraud charges. After the
court ordered a psychiatric evaluation of the defendant, the Government filed a motion to bar her from
arguing to the jury that her conduct was excused by the affirmative defense of coercion. ...

Case held that while departures based on the extraordinary complexity of defendant's fraud are rare, they are proper if "present to such an exceptional degree that it cannot be characterized as typical or usual." (Id., at 108).

United States v. DeWitt, 95 F.3d 1374 (8th Cir. 1996) (Per curiam)
United States v. Meyers, 95 F.3d 1475 (10th Cir. 1475) (Judge Barrett)

In both of these cases the courts dismissed some creative claims by the defendants that their drug charges should be dismissed on the grounds that they ...

Here the Court rejected the arguments of the defendant AND the Government that its acceptance of one count of the plea precluded it from rejecting other portions of the same agreement, stressing that a plea and an agreement are two different things.

This is one of those "pin dance" cases ...

This case holds that just because a defendant pleads guilty to certain offenses "in the same court, at the same time, and before the same judge" (Id., at 549), and even though the parole commission may have treated the crimes as "related" for parole purposes, that does not make them ...

Court rejected claim that BOP reclassification of crimes to deny benefits of drug treatment program violated the prisoners rights.

At least twice before, Judge Haggerty has dealt with the same issue presented in this case - namely whether the Bureau of Prisons abused an inmate's due process rights when it ...