The issue in this case was whether a statement given to police by a declarant who was offered leniency in exchange for cooperation qualifies under the hearsay exception for statements against penal interest within the meaning of Rule 804 of the Fed.R.Evid.
The defendant was charged with robbery and carrying ...
In this case, the defendant claimed that the Government breached his plea agreement by promising him that he would not be deported if he assisted in other drug trafficking investigations; and he moved for specific performance of the plea agreement. The district court granted the motion - after it had ...
The defendant in this case argued for a downward departure based on youthful lack of guidance, imperfect duress, and battered woman syndrome as a form of diminished capacity. The district court held that because all three stemmed from the defendant's relationship with her husband, they were essentially all the same ...
Case held that Bartkus exception to the dual sovereignty doctrine did not apply where there was significant cooperation between federal and state authorities - since it was not enough to make the second prosecution a "sham.".
On September 30, 1996, President Clinton signed into law the ignominious Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act ("IIRIRA"), now codified at 8 U.S.C. § 1252(g). With little fanfare and almost no public outcry, that statute completed Congress's latest disembowelment of the Federal habeas corpus jurisprudence, which began with the ...
This is an astonishing case that reflects a deep and disturbing division among the judges about the role the courts should play in seeking to achieve justice in criminal cases. It is also a case that reflects a barbarous and blasé attitude of some judges that rigid adherence to established ...
In January of 1996, an en banc Sixth Circuit reversed the civil rights conviction of a State Judge who had been charged, under 18 U.S.C. § 242, with various acts of sexual misconduct while on the bench. The Court ruled that § 242 was simply not intended to make a ...
This is an interesting case in which the Court vacated a conviction because it found that, at the time the defendant entered his plea, "he could not have understood its consequences." Knowing the "consequences" of a plea agreement is a concept that the courts are rarely willing to open up ...
Here, the Court rejected a claim that a two-year delay in the defendant's indictment violated her due process rights. The Court held that: "Preindictment delay is not a violation of the Due Process Clause unless the defendant shows both that the delay caused actual prejudice and that the government delayed ...
Court held that no hearing was required to determine whether defendant had suffered actual and substantial prejudice from the Government's nine-year pre-indictment delay.
Case discussed and approved in principle the availability of downward departure based on the Battered Woman Syndrome.
The defendant in this case argued for a downward departure based on youthful lack of guidance, imperfect duress, and battered woman syndrome as a form of diminished capacity. The district court held that ...
Here the Tenth Circuit ruled that a continuance granted by the district court violated both the letter and the spirit of the Speedy Trial Act. First it granted the continuance because it was engaged in another trial and no other district judge was available to take the case. Because the ...
Case explored the one-year limitation contained in Rule 35(b) and held that if the substantial assistance that formed the basis of a downward departure motion involved information or evidence that that the defendant knew within the one-year period after sentencing, he is not entitled to have the one year limitation ...
Miranda rights not required to be made in deportation hearing.
One of the issues raised on this appeal dealt with the scope of the marital testimonial privilege. After
the defendant was convicted of a conspiracy to sell heroin and while serving her own sentence, she was
called to testify in her husband’s case. She asserted her spousal testimonial privilege and ...
Dissent of Judge Kozinski
Not for Publication
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*
THOMAS MARTIN THOMPSON, *
* Nos. 95-99014
Petitioner-Appellant- * 95-99015
Cross-Appellee, *
* D.C. No. ...
In this case, one of the crimes for which the defendant was convicted was that he had possessed a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking offense in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1). On appeal, he alleged that the Government had failed to prove the predicate offense ...
Case held that a jury is not required to be told that the defendant has been acquitted of prior criminal acts where evidence of such prior charges has been introduced to the jury.
For a contrary view, see Rice v. U.S., 68 F.3d 702 (3rd Cir. 1995) and Palma v. U.S., 48 F.Supp.2d 481 (E.D.Pa. 1999).
Case held that failure of ATF to rule on application for restoration of fiream privileges because it had not received appropriations to do so was not a ...
The issue in this case was whether a statement given to police by a declarant who was offered leniency in exchange for cooperation qualifies under the hearsay exception for statements against penal interest within the meaning of Rule 804 of the Fed.R.Evid.
The defendant was charged with robbery and carrying ...
Court held that once district court finds that scheme to defraud covers more than one victim under relevant conduct provisions, the court must impose the two level adjustment under § 2F1.1(b)(2)(B) for defrauding more than one victim.
Case suggests that a defendant need not receive any benefits directly in order to have his sentence adjusted under § 2C1.1(b)(2)(A) - but see U.S. v. Agostino, 132 F.3d 1183, 1196-98 (7th Cir. 1997) where the Court clarified this holding.
Case held that defendant's activities as a "trafficker" in child pornography did not constitute a pattern of sexual exploitation that would support a sentence enhancement under § 2G2.2(b)(4).
Not too long ago, Chief Judge Posner wrote: "We should have a realistic conception of the composition of the prison and jail population before deciding that they are scum entitled to nothing better than what a vengeful populace and a resource-starved penal system choose to give them." Johnson v. Phelan, ...
Case contains a detailed analysis of the Supreme Court's current jurisprudence concerning jury instructions that improperly define the meaning of "reasonable doubt.".
Once again a Court of Appeals has attempted to make sense out of the Supreme Court's jurisprudence about instructions to the jury which incorrectly define the concept of ...
Court held that district court was not required to identify specific assets from which defendant could pay fine because of defendant's use of a false social security card and a demonstrated willingness to conceal assets.
