Here the Court rejected a Government motion to use an expert witness because Government waited till two weeks before trial to file motion.

Case held that the fact that the defendants had reached a civil settlement with their victim did not preclude an award of restitution under the VWPA.

In this case the Court acknowledged that, in a previous ruling, U.S. v. Coleman, 997 F.2d 1101 (5th Cir. 1993), the Court had held ...

In holding that the Brady rule does not impose an unlimited duty on the prosecutor to inquire of other Government offices, the Court explained that a contrary view would "condemn the prosecution of criminal cases to a state of paralysis".

This is one of those typical, inconsistent Brady-rule violation cases ...

This decision is noted because it deals with a frequently misapplied Guideline provision, namely U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1 which permits a two-level sentence enhancement for obstructing or impeding the administration of justice "during the investigation, prosecution, or sentencing of the instant offense."

In this case, the defendant Cassiliano, a lawyer, was ...

Here the Court rejected a claim that one of the jurors had been "coerced" into a guilty verdict by threats from the other jurors, essentially on the grounds that once the jurors have been polled, there can be no delving into the jury's deliberations.

After the defendants in this case ...

Second or successive petitions.

United States v. Ortiz, 136 F.3d 161 (D.C. Cir. 1998) (Judge Rogers)
Thomas v. Superintendent/Woodbourne Corr. Facility, 136 F.3d 227 (2nd Cir. 1997) (Per Curiam)

Both of these cases deal with the impact of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act ("AEDPA") on different aspects of ...

In this case the Court discussed the element of willfulness in an obstruction of justice charge and concluded that in some cases the conduct in question may be "so inherently obstructive of the administration of justice" that the enhancement should be applied if the defendant deliberately engaged in that conduct, ...

Here the Court held that, under applicable Michigan law, parole officers had the authority to conduct a warrantless search of the residence occupied by the parolee and that such searches need only be supported by reasonable suspicion.

Here the Court addressed the criteria for the third-one-level sentence reduction under USSG § 3E1.1(b)(2) and held that the Guidelines do not do not force a defendant to forgo the filing of routine pretrial motions as the price of the sentence reduction.

In sharp contrast to Judge Gertner's ruling in ...

Over the strong dissent of Judge Moore, the majority somewhat limited the scope of the Violence Against Women Act, holding that the prohibition against domestic violence does not extend to acts occurring before interstate travel.

The Court concluded: "We conclude that aggravation of injuries inflicted before travel interstate may constitute ...

This case involves another judge who showed blind allegiance to the principle that justice demands eking out the maximum possible penalty, this time even if unsupported by his own prior statements. The defendant was a drug courier "mule" who ingested 70 pellets of heroin before embarking to Miami on a ...

In 1981, the petitioner in this case was arrested and charged with a murder that took place in 1974. He moved to dismiss the charges on the grounds that they were barred by the then existing five year statute of limitations that applied even to non-capital felony murder charges. The ...

United States v. Ortiz, 136 F.3d 161 (D.C. Cir. 1998) (Judge Rogers)
Thomas v. Superintendent/Woodbourne Corr. Facility, 136 F.3d 227 (2nd Cir. 1997) (Per Curiam)

Both of these cases deal with the impact of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act ("AEDPA") on different aspects of habeas appeals; and they ...

On this rehearing, the court divided; but Judge Noonan wrote that when a § 2255 motion is brought to vacate a sentence that is illegal by virtue of a later Supreme Court ruling, the Government cannot treat that motion as a breach of the plea bargain.

"Now it is contended ...

Case held that double counting is permissible if it accounts for more than one type of harm caused by the defendant's conduct or where each enhancement serves a unique purpose under the Guidelines (Id., at 654).

While the Court is this case, by a per curiam order, routinely affirmed the seizue of $844,520 in this case on the grounds that the claimant had failed to file a claim and a bond as § 1698 requires, the case is noted primarily for Judge Loken's comments in his ...

In this case Judge Gertner, sua sponte, granted a downward departure to a resident alien to avoid the harsh and questionable policies of the Bureau of Prisons that deny community confinement status to non- citizens simply because of the defendant's non citizen status. In this case, the court noted that ...

Second or successive petitions.

This case is noted because it outlines the approaches of the different Circuits on the issue of whether the new limitations in the AEDPA limiting the filing of a second or successive habeas appeal without a Certificate of Appealability from the Court of Appeals constitutes an impermissive retroactive application of ...

Although the Court observed that it has "several times" warned against the evils of mirroring hypothetical questions on the grounds that such questions constitute impermissible expert testimony about the defendant's mental state, the Court rejected the challenge made in this case, concluding (somehow) that it was clear that the expert's ...

The Court did acknowledge that in U.S. v. Lam Kwong-Wah, 966 F.2d 682 (D.C.Cir. 1992) "extraordinary circumstances" might call for the use of a higher standard of proof - such as clear and convincing evidence - but it concluded that no such circumstances were present in that case.

Here the ...

Here the Court held that each of three burglaries for which the defendant had previously been convicted occurred on ocasions different from others for purposes of the ACCA even though they occurred within an hour of each other.

In this case the Court reversed the lower court's refusal to apply ...

It is not surprising that, once again, our lead case was written by Judge Nancy Gertner from Massachusetts. Consistently, she cuts through the legal gibberish and political games of criminal law to prove that, with a bit of courage and an eye on the goals of justice and compassion, it ...

This is one of those typical, inconsistent Brady-rule violation cases (see, Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963)) that tests the creative ingenuity of the courts. Of course, the decision is filled with lots of platitudes and parables about the sanctity of the Government's obligations to disclose material evidence favorable ...

Special Commentary

In the February 2, 1998 issue of Punch and Jurists, we reported on what appeared to us to be a dramatic increase in the use of unpublished decisions by the Federal Courts of Appeal and a corresponding decline in the body of case law that is available to ...

In this case the Court rejected a challenge that Congress had exceeded its authority under the Commerce Clause when it enacted § 2262(a)(1).

Joining all the other Circuits that have ruled on the issue, the Court held that the new filing fee provisions of the PLRA do not apply to habeas corpus proceedings. The Court stated that "Congress enacted the PLRA to limit frivolous civil rights and prison condition cases, not to habeas ...

One of the issues raised in this case was a claim of entrapment - which the court rejected, holding that "A factual dispute concerning inducement and predisposition precludes a finding that the defendant was entrapped as a matter of law.".

In this case the Court denied a motion for a hearing to determine the defendant's mental and physical competency to stand trial, concluding in large part that due to the "magnitude and seriousness of the case" (i.e., the defendant was a mjor crime figure who had long been targeted by ...

Case is noted for its discussion of the history and purposes of the Writ of Coram Nobis.