Here the court addressed the statutory language that the defendant must provide "the government" with a truthful version of the events "not later than the time of the sentencing hearing." Essentially it held that giving the defendant repeated opportunities, after the commencement of the sentencing hearing, to change his version ...

United States v. Marsh, 144 F.3d 1229 (9th Cir. 1998) (Judge Noonan)
United States v. Kassouf, 144 F.3d 952 (6th Cir. 1998) (Judge Jones)

These two cases present another rarity - reversals of convictions for "corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede the due administration of the tax laws", in violation ...

Case affirmed proposition that a sentencing court may control any inappropriate manipulation of the indictment through use of its departure powe.

Here the Court noted that "Drug courier profile evidence is extremely prejudicial and may be used only in limited circumstances, such as ‘to establish modus operandi . . . in exceptional, complex cases'." (Id., at 1259).

This is one of those "wake up and take notice" cases that shows the ever-expanding reach of the prosecutorial arm of the Federal Government. Having won the battle of prosecuting State crimes, despite the Tenth Amendment, the Government is now seeking to expand its powers by exporting its comprehensive plan ...

United States v. Marsh, 144 F.3d 1229 (9th Cir. 1998) (Judge Noonan)
United States v. Kassouf, 144 F.3d 952 (6th Cir. 1998) (Judge Jones)

These two cases present another rarity - reversals of convictions for "corruptly endeavoring to obstruct and impede the due administration of the tax laws", in violation ...

Case held that Government's misconduct of waiting till just before trial to seek the testimony of a key witness warranted barring that witness from testifying at trial.

In 1996, the defendant in this case, Alfonso Sepe, a former State court judge was tried, along with two other judges and an ...

Relying on the defendant's status as a "prohibited person" under 18 USC § 922(g)(3), the court rejected the defendant's claim that some of the firearms found in his home were legally possessed and approved the offense level of 20.

Here the Court held than an entrapment defense is "a challenge to criminal intent and thus to culpability" and that a defendant who proceeds to trial asserting that defense is not entitled to a sentence adjustment for acceptance of responsibility.

Once again, Judge Weinstein has authored an important decision which shows that justice, logic and wisdom can still be used to offset the Guidelines' rigid call for justice by the numbers. This decision also reviews an important money laundering issue: whether "conscious avoidance" may be substituted for knowledge equivalents under ...

While the Court acknowledged a Circuit split on the issue, it cited its holding in U.S. v. Page, 131 F.3d 1173 (6th Cir. 1997) as binding precedent - and concluded that "except as otherwise authorized" language contained in § 3583(b) expressely permits the court to impose a sentence of supervised ...

Here, the Court acknowledged that in Burns v. U.S., 501 U.S. 129 (1991) the Supreme Court ruled that a sentencing court must defendants reasonable notice before departing from the Guidelines sentencing range on a ground not identified in the presentence report - but it refused to extend that notice requirement ...

We first wrote about this entrapment case in the June 9, 1997 issue of Punch and Jurists, where the panel's original decision was reported sub nom. U.S. v. Knox, 112 F.3d 802 (5th Cir. 1997). In that case, the Reverend Brace and his financial advisor had been convicted of money ...

This is an amusing case in which the Government somehow inadvertently released to defense counsel a confidential prosecution memorandum that described the Government's strategies, its witnesses and the sources of its evidence. When it became aware of what happened, the Government not only sought the return of its memo, but ...

Case held that although the defendant consented to a search on a Greyhound bus, the search was invaild because the circumstances under which the consent was obtained made it involuntary and coerced.

In this case, the bus driver exited the bus and was quickly replaced by police officer who announced ...

Here the Tenth Circuit approved enforcement of a waiver-of-appeal provision in a plea agreement that did not specify a sentence or a range of sentences without discussing the significance of that omission.

In this case the Tenth Circuit held that a defendant's "knowing and voluntary waiver of the statutory right ...

Here, citing a portion of the legislative history of § 3583(h), the Court held that the imposition of a 2nd term of supervised release violates the Ex Post Facto Clause when the defendant's original crime was committed before § 3583(h) was enacted.

The Court held that sentencing a defendant - ...

The Court held that AEDPA does not require uniform deference to state court decisions but "restricts the armamentarium of legal rules available to a federal habeas court in evaluating a state court judgment" by "confin[ing] the set of relevant rules to those 'clearly established by the Supreme Court.' " (Id., ...

Here the Sixth Circuit held that the PLRA's new limitations on attorney's fees do not apply to cases that were pending prior to the enactment of the PLRA, disagreeing with Alexander S. v. Boyd, 113 F.3d 1373 (4th Cir. 1997).

QUOTE OF THE WEEK - One view of the impact of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.

"[I]n the 10 plus years since the sentencing guidelines went into full force and effect in the federal court system we have come to a situation where the institutions of the Bureau of Prisons are ...

Here, as a matter of first impression, the Sixth Circuit joined holdings from the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th Circuits in holding that the enhancement contemplated in U.S.S.G. § 2F1.1(b)(4)(B) - (formerly codified at § 2F1.1(b)(3)(B)) - applies to bankruptcy fraud proceedings - thus disagreeing with the holdings of the ...

In this case the defendant pled guilty to being a felon in possesion of a gun, arising out of conduct on an Interstate highway where, while driving under the influence of liquor, he shot at a police officer and "dry-fired" at numerous other cars. The Government moved to have him ...

Court held that § 3626(e)(2), as amended, does not interfere with the traditional inherent powers of the courts and thus does not give rise to an unconstitutional incursion by Congress into the powers reserved for the Judiciary.

Although the Court agreed that a straightforward reading of the automatic stay provision ...

Citing Texas v. McCullough, 475 U.S. 134 (1986), the Court held that the imposition of a more stringent sentence upon resentencing is not improper when it is based on newly obtained information rather than vindictiveness.

Case held that imposition of longer sentence on remand did not violate the Due Process ...

Case held that crime of transmitting a threat to extort monies (18 USC § 875(d)) was not a "non-violent" offense, and thus no departure based on diminished capacity could have been granted.

Here, although the Court agreed that § 5K2.13 does not define the term "crime of violence", it said ...

Court held that conscious avoidance may be substituted for knowledge equivalents under the provisions of § 2S1.1(b)(1) - although here the Government failed to prove that defendants had consciously avoided knowledge that funds were drug proceeds.

Once again, Judge Weinstein has authored an important decision which shows that justice, logic ...

In this case the defendant pled guilty to being a felon in possesion of a gun, arising out of conduct on an Interstate highway where, while driving under the influence of liquor, he shot at a police officer and "dry-fired" at numerous other cars. The Government moved to have him ...

In this case the defendant pled guilty to being a felon in possesion of a gun, arising out of conduct on an Interstate highway where, while driving under the influence of liquor, he shot at a police officer and "dry-fired" at numerous other cars. The Government moved to have him ...

Case held that crime of transmitting a threat to extort monies (18 USC § 875(d)) was not a "non-violent" offense, and thus no departure based on diminished capacity could have been granted.

Here, although the Court agreed that § 5K2.13 does not define the term "crime of violence", it said ...

This case is noted because it reversed a conviction for possession with intent to distribute drugs based upon an aiding and abetting theory. The defendant Stewart and his co-defendant Watson were stopped on the pretext of a traffic infraction while driving in Watson's girl-friend's car. In fact the police had ...

Case approved an upward departure based in part on endangering the public welfare under USSG § 5K2.14; and listed (on page 979) a number of cases where that enhancement had been approved.

In this case the defendant pled guilty to being a felon in possesion of a gun, arising out ...

Case held that exclusion of evidence that Government's witness had been convicted of various crimes was not error because evidence of a prior drug conviction was not necessarily relevant to credibility and it had the danger of being prejudicial.

Case rejected claim that information disclosed to Probation Officer after he signed proffer agreement should have been excluded under § 1B1.8, holding it was "completely extraneous to information concerning the unlawful activities of other persons.".

Here the court did agree that § 1B1.8(a) "unquestionably forbids the government to influence the ...

In this tax protester case the Court vacated a series of convictions both because Government's proof violated the Confrontation Clause and because of improper venue.

United States v. Marsh, 144 F.3d 1229 (9th Cir. 1998) (Judge Noonan)
United States v. Kassouf, 144 F.3d 952 (6th Cir. 1998) (Judge Jones)

These ...

The issue presented in this case was whether a district court may depart from the punishment prescribed by the Guidelines based upon a disparity between the punishment and the sanction imposed for similar conduct in the relevant State court. The defendant argued that he would have received a much shorter ...