The gun activists often claim that the Government lives in abject fear of anyone (except, of course, Government employees) possessing guns - because an armed citizenry poses a threat to its base of power. They argue that the Government wants to make sure that never again will there be a ...

There were many issues raised in this complex appeal from multiple convictions based on arson- homicide, mail fraud and witness tampering; and two of those were issues of first impression in the Second Circuit. The first was a challenge, based upon the Supreme Court's ruling in U.S. v. Lopez, 514 ...

There were many issues raised in this complex appeal from multiple convictions based on arson- homicide, mail fraud and witness tampering; and two of those were issues of first impression in the Second Circuit. The first was a challenge, based upon the Supreme Court's ruling in U.S. v. Lopez, 514 ...

Aroused by the growing surge of sex crimes in America, in 1995 Congress enacted a series of new amendments to the Federal Rules of Evidence designed to make it easier to obtain convictions. Those rules, contained in Rules 413-15 of the Fed.R.Evid., relate to the admission of evidence of similar ...

In the case the Court agreed that it had been improper for the district court to allow the use of the defendant's prior out-of-court statements under Rule 801(d)(1)(B). The Government had argued, and the district court agreed, that the evidence was necessary to rebut the motive to fabricate that had ...

This case is another eye-opener about the purposes and goals of capital punishment in America. In this case, the petitioner had been incarcerated on death row since December 19, 1974 - a total of some 23 years. At least five times, an execution date was set; and four times it ...

It is rare that we feature, as our lead case, a decision that contains relatively nondescript and perfunctory recitations judicial platitudes; but we do so this week because there is far more behind the troubling saga of this case than is visible at first glance. First of all, this case ...

This case is another eye-opener about the purposes and goals of capital punishment in America. In this case, the petitioner had been incarcerated on death row since December 19, 1974 - a total of some 23 years. At least five times, an execution date was set; and four times it ...

The defendant in this case sent threatening letters to the President and a Senator. After his conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 876, he appealed arguing that the district court should not have applied a three level enhancement under § 3A1.2(a) because he had caused no disruption of government operations. The ...

There were many issues raised in this complex appeal from multiple convictions based on arson- homicide, mail fraud and witness tampering; and two of those were issues of first impression in the Second Circuit. The first was a challenge, based upon the Supreme Court's ruling in U.S. v. Lopez, 514 ...

Here, citing Old Chief v. U.S., 136 L.Ed.2d 574 (1997), the Court held that admitting evidence of the defendant's prior convictions despite his offer to stipulate to his status as a felon was an abuse of discretion; but that the error was harmless.

This case contains a detailed analysis of the new rules that deal with the introduction of evidence of prior sex crimes in certain types of sex cases. See also the Tenth Circuit's other detailed decisions on this topic, U.S. v. Guardia, 135 F.3d 1326 (10th Cir. 1998) and U.S. v. ...

Here, although the Court ultimately reversed a downward departure granted for aberrant conduct, it acknolwedged that "aberrant behavior departures are available to first offenders whose course of criminal conduct involves more than one criminal act".

In this case, the Court reversed the decision of the district court to grant a ...

It is not too difficult for the average layman to understand why the Government would wait ten years before indicting a defendant for a crime that occurred ten years before. Normal people don't keep records that long; witnesses die; people's recollections about what really happened become fuzzy and pale; and ...

The issue in this case was whether a defendant, who qualified for a resentencing under the retroactive application of Guideline Amendment 516 (dealing with the weight of marijuana plants), was also eligible for a "safety-valve" sentence reduction if his original crime was committed before the safety valve provisions were enacted. ...

QUOTE OF THE WEEK - The Sentencing Guidelines - Are they a "failed experiment" under which the "inflexible prosecutorial mind" dictates the sentencing parameters?

"[G]iven the frequency with which the guidelines result in sentences of numerous decades, combined with the fact that forty year old defendants are not uncommon, logic ...

For a more detailed discussion of the facts of this case, see summary of lower court decision reported at 991 F.Supp. 1289 (D.N.M. 1996).

Court affirmed vacation of a conviction under 8 USC § 1324(a)(2) due to a lack of evidence that defendant's actions were "in furtherance of" a violation ...

Just as the New York Times has completed a series of front-page articles entitled "Police Tactics Chipping Away at Suspects' Rights", comes this case from the First Circuit which gives credence to the Times conclusion that "Case by case, the United States Supreme Court and state courts have narrowed the ...

Here the Court delved into the "Doctrine of Completeness", stressing that it is a remedy to prevent misunderstandings, not a tool to be used to permit the admission of otherwise inadmissible evidence.

In this case the Court emphasized that the Doctrine of Completeness "does not permit the admission of otherwise ...