This is another one of those cases in which an accused organized crime figure was denied bail despite proposing a bail package consisting of a fully secured $2 million bond and extensive restrictions on his person including electronic monitoring and house arrest. (The consistent unavailability of bail to high profile ...
The appellees in this case were a group of convicted offenders who were sentenced to probation prior to July 1, 1994. In June of that year, the State of Rhode Island passed a law authorizing the Department of Corrections to start charging a fee of $15.00 a month to cover ...
This case explores the right of a party against whom a fragmentary statement has been introduced to
demand the admission of additional portions of the entire document, as spelled out in Fed.R.Evid. 106. The Court clarifies that the right to have additional portions of a statement admitted into evidence is ...
This case deals with a now-familiar, recurring topic - namely, what is the effective date of the various sections of the labyrinthine and far-reaching Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEPDA), which was signed into law on April 24, 1996. Many of the Sections of that law contain no direction ...
Last week we ruffled more than a few feathers when we said that the U.S. Postal Service was one of the largest purveyors of pornography in the world. Little did we know that we would have dramatic current proof of that fact so soon. In this case, the defendant ordered ...
The cousin of the AEDPA is the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) which (curiously but perhaps deliberately to divert attention from some of its wilder provisions) was enacted as Title VIII of the Omnibus Consolidated Rescissions and Appropriations Act of 1996. One its many provisions is Section 804 which amended ...
Gun conviction reversed due to erroneous jury instruction on the meaning of "use" under § 924(c).
Citing its decision in U.S. v. Duran, 96 F.3d 1995 (D.C.Cir. 1996), the Court held that when a defedant fails to object to judicial comments at the time they are made and later claims that such comments had the effect of bolstering a witness's testimony, any error that occurred will ...
Case is noted principally for its review of the Hostage Taking Act.
Fourth Circuit reversed a downward departure concluding that the Sentencing Commission had adequately considered whether to allow sentencing reductions for previously discharged terms of imprisonment and determined such reductions inappropriate.
One of the issues raised in this drug case, in which the defendant was convicted of operating a continuing criminal ...
Here the Court explores some of the zealous efforts of the U.S. Postal Service in ridding the world of perverts who buy pornography; but leaves open some rather disturbing questions about the means chosen to accomplish those ends.
Last week we ruffled more than a few feathers when we said ...
Case held that the broad sweep of the second prong of § 371 did not require proof that defendant had any contact with Government agency he defrauded.
Judge Friendly once referred to the crime of criminal conspiracy as "that elastic, sprawling and pervasive offense whose development exemplifies . . . ...
Moore v. Johnson, 101 F.3d 1069 (5th Cir. 1996) (Judge DeMoss)
Satcher v. Netherland, 944 F.Supp. 1222 (E.D.Va. 1996) (Judge Payne)
Here are two more decisions that deal with the effective date of the AEDPA - this time the provisions of § 104(d). That Section amended 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) ...
QUOTE OF THE WEEK - Pretrial Detention - The Hallmark of the Totalitarian State
"[I]t is well to remember the magnitude of the injury that pretrial detention inflicts and the departure that it marks from ordinary forms of constitutional governance. Executive power to detain an individual is the hallmark of ...
Case reviews the "opt-in" provisions that enable States to qualify for truncated review of habeas corpus cases.
Citing its decision in U.S. v. Washington, 12 F.3d 1138, the Court affirmed that "under the supervening decision doctrine, we may 'consider any change . . . In law[ ] which has supervened since the [trial court's] judgment was entered' so long as the law was so well-settled at the ...
Moore v. Johnson, 101 F.3d 1069 (5th Cir. 1996) (Judge DeMoss)
Satcher v. Netherland, 944 F.Supp. 1222 (E.D.Va. 1996) (Judge Payne)
Here are two more decisions that deal with the effective date of the AEDPA - this time the provisions of § 104(d). That Section amended 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d) ...
This case contains a surprisingly detached analysis of the scope of yet another one of those scary Federal laws that preempt the rights of the States to police their own territories - namely the little-known Hostage Taking Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1203 (the "HTA"). The HTA makes it a Federal ...
Here's another case that shows the galling power of the prosecutors to determine sentences. The jury in this case found the defendant guilty on two of the counts charged, but was unable to reach a verdict on eight remaining counts. A mistrial was declared as to those remaining counts and ...
Case held that retroactive legislation that required pronationers to pay costs of supervision did not violate Ex Post Facto Clause because statute did not impose additional "punishment.".
The Mapp case is a rather extraordinary admission of the power even the courts give to the prosecutors to manipulate sentences. Here, the defendant was convicted of a few counts, but the jury failed to agree on most of the others. After a mistrial was declared on those counts, the ...
New in forma pauperis provisions contained in 28 USC 1915(a) do not apply to habeas corpus actions.
