This is an interesting case which addresses a fairly common issue: Can a defendant in a drug case assert that he has a due process right to be sentenced on the basis of the type of drugs that he believed he was transporting, rather than the type of drugs that ...

Here the Court established two principles to determine whether a mitigating role adjustment under USSG § 3B1.2 is proper - namely, the defendant's role in the relevant conduct and the defendant's role compared with the other participants.

In this case, the en banc court addressed a panel’s earlier decision which ...

This is an interesting case which addresses a fairly common issue: Can a defendant in a drug case assert that he has a due process right to be sentenced on the basis of the type of drugs that he believed he was transporting, rather than the type of drugs that ...

Here the Court held that to establish that a defendant possessed an unregistered firearm in violation of 26 USC § 5861(d), the Government must prove that the defendant knew of the particular characteristics of his weapon that made it a "firearm".

On appeal, the defendant argued that the Supreme Court's ...

Here the Court vacated a sentence of five years probation with a special condition of six months imprisonment as inconsistent with the provisions of 18 USC § 3561; and that it was not an "intermittent sentence" as permitted by § 3563(b).

The defendant in this case was convicted of various drug crimes, and at sentencing he sought a two level reduction in his base offense level under U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(b)(6) - a provision that permits such a decrease for a defendant who meets the requirements of the “safety valve” provisions of ...

Here the Court held that the Double Jerpardy Clause did not bar a new trial of the defendant following a mistrial, both because it found that the defendant had given his implied consent to the mistrial and because of manifest necessity.

Citing its decision in Watkins v. Kassulke, 90 F.3d ...

In the topsy-turvy world of criminal law, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure can be one of its greatest enigmas. While those Rules were created to govern and to bring about an air of certainty to criminal proceedings, they are often relegated to the status of meaningless exhortations under the ...

This is a reprise of a case originally reported at 139 F.3d 847 (Cerceda I) (see P&J, 5/25/98), where a panel of the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a district court (Judge O’Kelley) ruling granting motions for new trials to the defendants in some 24 criminal cases who had been tried and/or ...

Here the Court held that the trial court had improperly deferred to the Government's position about the quantity of drugs that were involved, without making its own findings and permiting the defendant to present evidence to the contrary.

The defendant in this case was convicted of various drug crimes, and ...

Here the Court held that the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act is not subject to the Ex Post facto Clause, and thus may be applied retroactively, because it is not a penal statute but, functionally, a tort statute.

Here the Court held that the plain language of USSG § 2X2.1 requires a sentencing court to treat an aider and abettor as though he or she committed the underlying offense; not as though he or she and the principal offender are the same person.

This case deals with a ...

The Court held that any obstructive conduct must occur after an investigation has begun and cited the Sentencing Commission's statements that its amendments to § 3C1.1 were meant to clarify "the temporal element of the obstruction guideline (i.e., that the obstructive conduct must occur during the investigation, prosecution, or sentencing ...

In its decision, the Court also abbrogated its earlier decision in U.S. v. Dunn, 80 F.3d 402 (9th Cir. 1996), which it said had no longer any force after the LaBonte decision.

Here the Court held that the Supreme Court's decision in U.S. v. LaBonte, 520 U.S. 751 (1997) which ...

Here the Court held it was reversible error, as improper vouching for a witness, for a prosecutor to comment on a purported policy of the Department of Justice, implying that the DOJ does not give "two for one deals".

The Court noted that "Vouching constitutes an assurance by the prosecuting ...

In this case the defendant had accumulated some 20 prior convictions, making him a career offender. At sentencing, Judge Wood stressed that she believed there was a chance "albeit slim" that the defendant would not commit this type of crime again. Thus, sua sponte she gave the defendant a sentence ...

Here the Court reviewed the phrase "directly and proximately harmed" as used in the amended resttitution statutes and, while conceding it applied to conspiracy cases, it held it was still limited to conduct underlying the crime of conviction.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK - In 1993, Judge Jack B. Weinstein of the Eastern District of New York addressed the mens rea issues involved in the sentencing of two drug mules who were caught bringing drugs into the country. The drugs had been ingested by swallowing balloons filled with a ...

In the topsy-turvy world of criminal law, the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure can be one of its greatest enigmas. While those Rules were created to govern and to bring about an air of certainty to criminal proceedings, they are often relegated to the status of meaningless exhortations under the ...

Here the Court established two principles to determine whether a mitigating role adjustment under USSG § 3B1.2 is proper - namely, the defendant's role in the relevant conduct and the defendant's role compared with the other participants.

In this case, the en banc court addressed a panel’s earlier decision which ...

Here the Court held that a jury in a CCE case under 21 USC §848 case must unanimously agree not only that the defendant committed some “continuing series of violations,” but also about which specific “violations” make up that “continuing series".

In one of those unpredictable decisions that seem to ...