Court held that defendant was misled by a "pattern of deception" making him believe that he was not a suspect and was not going to be arrested when the interrogating agent had in his possession an arrest warrant.
Defendant Santiago was one of a number of defendants charged in a multi-count RICO and drug conspiracy indictment. Initially he was arrested and held in State custody on Rikers Island when Federal agents sought to interview him on the Federal charges that were under investigation. An Assistant U.S. Attorney sought ...
This is one of those disturbing cases that shows the reality of the brave new world created by the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. The defendant Jones was one of 21 co-conspirators who went to trial on charges of conspiring to distribute heroin and cocaine. He was acknowledged to be a mere ...
Case held that the giving of a Miranda warning does not, in and of itself, convert an otherwise non-custodial interview into a custodial interrogation (Id., at 1148-49).
The defendant in this case was a member of an Orthodox Jewish sect in which it was the custom for fathers to arrange the marriages of their children. He was convicted on charges of conspiracy, commercial bribery, and mail and wire fraud arising out of a scheme to sell to ...
Case reversed district court decision granting a new trial based on Government's failure to disclose exculpatory evidence about a key witness on grounds of materiality and speculative inferences.
This is one of those intriguing Brady violation cases that never really had a chance of succeeding. It involved high-profile organized crime ...
Court declined to grant downward departure based on extraordinary restitution due to payments made pursuant to civil lawsuit, since the touchstone of a departure for extraordinary restitution is voluntariness, which was not present here.
Court held that a departure under § 5K2.11 is typically inappropriate where the defendant could have pursued other means of avoiding the greater harm rather than committing a crime.
Court denied a sentence reduction under § 5K2.11 where defendant alleged she committed crime of extortion in order to bring victim ...
The Court noted that: "Historically, the requirement that admissible confessions be 'voluntary' reflected a variety of value; these included deterring coercion, assuring reliability of confessions, and protecting the suspect's free choice whether to confess. Thus, at common law, confessions produced by promises not to prosecute or offers of leniency were ...
This is the sequel to the Second Circuit's earlier decision, reported at 120 F.3d 1263 (2nd Cir. 1997), where that Court held that neither the registration nor the community notification provisions of the New York's version of the Megan's Laws Act constituted "punishment" for purposes of the Ex Post Facto ...
Court affirmed granting of broad injunctive relief against the INS for its use of "dense" and "misleading" forms that failed to apprise aliens of their rights to a hearing and the effects of signing an English-only waiver form.
This is an interesting class action suit in which a Legal Aid ...
This is an interesting class action suit in which a Legal Aid lawyer, concerned that the INS procedures for the deportation of the vast number of aliens who are charged with document fraud violated their due process rights, successfully challenged the INS and evoked a series of remedial steps that ...
Court declined to grant Government's ex parte motion to extend the period of the statute of limitations, pursuant to 18 USC § 3292.
This decision deals with a Government's ex parte motion to suspend the applicable statutes of limitations relating to certain unspecified individuals and entities who were presumably being ...
Abuse of Power # 1. The law states that when the Government makes an application for an order authorizing a wire-tap it must submit "a full and complete statement as to whether or not other investigative procedures have been tried and failed or why they reasonably appear to be unlikely ...
This is one of those intriguing Brady violation cases that never really had a chance of succeeding. It involved high-profile organized crime figures, secret informants planted deep within their organizations, and allegations that an FBI "handler" had given secret information to his charge to keep him from being arrested while ...
Case held prisoner's liberty interests were not violated by a stay of 545 days in the hole, concluding that there was no "atypical and significant hardship" since conditions of confinement contained "similarities" to general prison population.
This provocative case is a good example of the growing tension between the real ...
Here the Court granted a motion to dismiss an indictment under what the Court labeled the Federal "ghost payroller" statute where the Government attempted to aggregate payments received outside the applicable five year statute of limitations period.
Court held that for the purposes of meeting the jurisdictional monetary threshholds of ...
The real message of this case is that it may reflect the beginnings of judicial rumblings of discontent over the Government's policy of attempting to squeeze the last pound of flesh out of every case. The defendant in this case was convicted of possession of crack cocaine with intent to ...
Court vacated a conviction on the grounds that the Government placed evidence of an alternate but legally impermissible theory before the jury, confusing the jury and prejudicing the defendant.
This case is noted for its holding that "A Sixth Amendment right to counsel does not attach to an appeal from a supervised release revocation hearing." (Id., at 783). While the Court acknowledged that, by statute - namely 18 U.S.C. § 3006A(a)(1)(E), there is a right to counsel in a ...
Case is noted for Judge McKay's dissent in which he argued that the good faith exception of U.S. v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897 (1984) should not be applied to an improperly executed anticipatory search warrant.
The defendant in this oft-appealed case was convicted of producing and selling adulterated orange juice in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 331(a) and 333(b). His Guideline sentencing range was 30 to 37 months imprisonment and, after several remands and an intervening appeal to the Supreme Court, the district court (Judge ...
The defendant in this oft-appealed case was convicted of producing and selling adulterated orange juice in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 331(a) and 333(b). His Guideline sentencing range was 30 to 37 months imprisonment and, after several remands and an intervening appeal to the Supreme Court, the district court (Judge ...
This provocative case is a good example of the growing tension between the real world and the ivory tower world of judges; but it is also noted because it contains a number of novel twists. The defendant complained that his due process rights were violated because he was forced to ...
This spicy case technically addresses the narrow question of whether a district court, after receiving a notice of an interlocutory appeal under 18 U.S.C. § 3731, may nonetheless swear a jury and start the trial. (Section 3731 is one of those many special one-sided statutes that gives the Government, but ...
Here the Court essentially reasoned that the double counting was permissible because it was not expressly prohibited.
Court held that a 12 point enhancement of sentence on a felon in possession charge was not double counting, even though the defendant also received an additional 5-year sentence on charge of possession ...
Quote from Judge Bright about the inherent unfairness of sentencing a drug mule, who had a diminished capacity, to a 30 year sentence while some of the drug kingpins got lesser sentences.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK - "An Unfair Criminal System."
"The sentence of Jones, a man with the mind ...
After the defendant was acquitted of drug conspiracy, he was charged with tax fraud and court held that it was not error to refuse to advise jury that he had been acquitted of drug crime after evidence of that prosecution was presented to jury.
In this case the defendant was convicted of possession of drugs with intent to distribute, but he was acquitted on a weapons charge. At sentencing, the Government moved for a sentence enhancement pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(b)(1). Judge Brody denied the enhancement on the grounds that the Government had produced ...
This decision contains a detailed review of recent cases on the same issue; but see Ruiz v. Johnson, 37 F.Supp.2d 855 (S.D.Tex. 1999) for the most definitive and detailed analysis of this issue. And see Imprisoned Citizens Union v. Shapp, 11 F.Supp.2d 586 (W.D.Pa. 1998) and Vazquez v. Carver, 18 ...
Court vacated special verdict and forfeiture order because finding that funds in defendant's bank account were "involved in" or "traceable to" money laundering offense was clearly erroneous.
Court granted motion to dismiss indictment on grounds that it was too imprecise to enable defendant to adequately prepare a defense.
Case held that "loss", for sentencing purposes, can include amounts that the defendant stockbroker falsely told his victims their investments had earned in the stock market.
