Case held that information that Government had attempted to sell arms to same foreign country that defendant had did not give sentencing court authority to reduce sentence under provisions of old Rule 35(a).

Case is noted for Judge Keith's strong dissent in which he stated "I cannot help but be amazed at the length to which the Majority will travel to deny Mitchell a fair trial. . . . I dissent from this judicial travesty." (Id, at 583).

Over the strong objections of ...

Here, although the Court said it was deeply troubled by prosecutor's statements promising to produce evidence that it never produced, it finds that such error was harmless.

This appeal is the outgrowth of one of four related trials against 24 defendants who were charged with a broad assortment of drug ...

After observing that the Secretary of Treasury had withdrawn a regulation that would have required banks to post notices of the changes in law in bank tellers windows, Government could not now argue that everyone knew structuring was illegal.

It is now well established that, in order to obtain a ...

Wilson did not dispute the recommended finding that a firearm was possessed under § 2D1.1(b)(1) because there was significant evidence that his coconspirators had possessed firearms. See U.S.S.G.
§ 1B1.3(a)(1)(B) (explaining that "in the case of jointly undertaken criminal activity," specific adjustments to offense levels are to be based on ...

In this case the Court held (at page 829) that there was no violation of a defendant's subatantial rights where the only possible deprivation suffered was the possibility of jury nullification.

Although the court refused to grant a third point for acceptance of responsibility, it did approve a two point reduction for a defendant who went to trial because it found the defendant was collaterally attacking a prior deportation proceeding.

This is one of those rare cases in which a Federal court was actually willing to discuss the frequently-used prosecution tactic of pressuring a defendant into signing a plea agreement or cooperating by filing a different indictment against members of the defendant's family or close friends.

Here, the defendant's fiancee ...

Court held that downward departures based on lack of guidance as a youth was a permitted grounds for departure before 1992 when § 5H1.12 2 was adopted.

Despite its name, the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "PLRA") wasn't even enacted into law until 1996. Consistent with that mistake, the Sixth Circuit notes that the PLRA also contains numerous "typographical errors, . . . creates conflicts with the Rules of Appellate Procedure, . . . and ...

Note: this case was based on the law before Guideline Amendment 518 was adopted.

Case held that where a defendant fails to object at sentencing to type of drug used for sentencing purposes, it is not plain error for the court to base sentence on the more penal form of ...

Despite its name, the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "PLRA") wasn't even enacted into law until 1996. Consistent with that mistake, the Sixth Circuit notes that the PLRA also contains numerous "typographical errors, . . . creates conflicts with the Rules of Appellate Procedure, . . . and ...

This is a frightening saga of how corrupt law enforcement officials and a prosecutor conspired to convict an innocent woman of murder; of how a State court judge - and ultimately the entire judicial process in Pennsylvania - ignored the facts and the truth to affirm her conviction; and of ...

At the conclusion of this decision, Judge Weinstein rhetorically asks: "Under the blindfold, does justice weep?" His unstated answer is clear. She weeps with increasing anguish and rage!

The defendant in this case was one of four defendants who attempted to rob an armored truck. They were all caught and, ...

In this case, the defendant acknowledge both at Jenkins' criminal trial and at his own trial for perjury that
he had lied to the grand jury. The Court stated that "simply admitting perjury does not constitute proof 'by a preponderance of the evidence that [a defendant] clearly demonstrated recognitition and ...

Case reversed a downward departure for extraordinary family circumstances, holding that 21 year old defendant who had remained with this newborn child, rather than abaondoning it, was not an event that took case outside of the Guidelines' heartland.

In the annals of criminal law there is probably no feat more difficult than upsetting a conspiracy conviction
- and yet that is precisely what happened in this case. The defendant, eager to make some quick money,
and following instructions received by phone, went to a hotel room to open ...

This case represents an important reminder of how the Government seeks to use the crimes it charges as the basis for sentencing. The defendant, a prisoner at the Lorton Reformatory in Virginia, witnessed a fight between two other prisoners. When he was called before a grand jury to testify about ...

This is an important Guidelines decision that flows from the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Koon v. U.S., 135 L.Ed.2d 392 (1996); and, in the minds of the dissenting judges, it is destined to change much of the legal landscape concerning the trial court's discretion to grant departures under the ...

Here the Court conceded that there was no evidence that the defendants used or possessed any firearms before they broke into a pawn shop, but once they picked up guns during their burglary the Court ruled that subsequent possession satisfied the nexus requirement for possession because the firearms were then ...

Quote from David Burnham's book - Above the Law: Secret Deals, Political Fixes, and Other Misadventures of the U.S. Department of Justice - about the rank hypocrisy of the Office of Professional Responsibility.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK - Being a Federal prosecutor means never having to say you're sorry!

In ...

This is one of those rare cases in which a Federal court was actually willing to discuss the frequently-used prosecution tactic of pressuring a defendant into signing a plea agreement or cooperating by filing a different indictment against members of the defendant's family or close friends.

Here, the defendant's fiancee ...

Case affirmed authority of BOP to adopt regulations denying any sentence reduction to prisoners who complete a drug program if theu have committed a violant offense.

Case held it was reversible error to refuse to admit all of an inclupatory statement by defendant's father, who was a fugitive at the time of trial.

The United States sought review of the dismissal, by the United States District Court, District of Kansas, of five counts of an indictment against defendant under 18 U.S.C.S. § 922(g), on the grounds that the statute, as applied to its proffer of evidence concerning five of the six counts based ...