Here, relying on its prior precedent in U.S. v. Marcello, 13 F.3d 752 (3rd Cir. 1994), the Court refused to hold that the district court had erred in refusing to grant a departure based on aberrant conduct - holding that such conduct must be a single act that is spontaneous ...

Here the court remanded for further findings a case where the district court imposed a nine-level upward departure for extreme conduct for consideration of "proportionality" concerns raised by the coincidence of 1st and 2nd degree murder punishments.

While the Court found no abuse of discretion in the award of a ...

Here the Court held that the defendant's wife's purported relevation of past infidelities did not warrant application of a downward departure under USSG § 5K2.10 as the type of victim's conduct which contributed to provoking the offense behavior.

This case contains a detailed review of the purposes of, and criteria ...

In its previous decision vacating the sentence that was imposed, the Court stated: "We therefore vacate Washington's sentence and remand for the limited purpose of recalculating his base offense level under section 2J1.2, without applying the cross-reference to section 2X1.3, and resentencing him accordingly." (Id., at 1117). The district court ...

Here the Third Circuit affirmed a restitution order that required a 39-year old defendant to pay some $57,000 towards his 14-year old victim's psychiatric expenses, and held that there is nothing in the restitution statute permitting proportionality.

This case addressed two issues arising out of America's growing abhorrence with child ...

In this case the Court reconciled the "arguable inconsistencies" in its prior holdings in U.S. v. Cooper, 111 F.3d 845 (11th Cir. 1997) (where the court vacated an enhancement because the Government failed to prove by a preponderance of evidence that the firearm - which was found at the defendant's ...

On remand from the Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the defendant's conviction in light of Caron v. U.S., 524 U.S. 308 (1998), and held that retroactive application of the Supreme Court's construction of § 922(g) did not violate due process.

Here the Court recognized the Supreme Court's "all-or-nothing" rule ...

The petitioner in this case suffered from Organic Delusional Disorder, a malady which, when untreated, rendered him prone to violent outbursts. During his term of imprisonment at San Quentin, he was required by prison doctors to take Navane, a psychotropic medication, to manage his disorder. Shortly prior to his release ...

In one of the better and most detailed reviews of the applicable case law, Judge Rogers held in this case that the BOP had improperly denied the petitioner eligibility for early release based on his sentence enhancement for possession of firearms.

Here the Court held that district courts do have habeas jurisdiction to consider constitutional challenges to mandatory detention orders under the IIRIRA, although the court never addressed the provisions of 8 USC § 1252(b)(9).

Here the Court held that the IIRIRA does not foreclose challenges to the subsection providing for ...

In this case the defendant was taken into custody by the INS immediately upon completion of a state sentence, and he was hel in detention for a period of more than 28 months while the Government sought to have him extradicted to Poland. In analyzing whether that continued detention violated ...

The Court held that a probationer's failure to object to or earlier appeal from the imposition of a special condition of probation requiring his to attend AAA meetings did not constitute a waiver or consent since he did not appreciate the deeply religious nature of the AAA meetings. Thus the ...

Here the Court affirmed that district courts have the discretion to depart downward because deportable aliens may be unable to take advantage of up to six months of home confinement authorized by 18 USC § 3624(c).

"Davoudi next argues that his custodial sentence should be remanded for reconsideration because the ...

Here the Court held that in a prosecution for extortion under "color of official right" in a non-campaign case, the Government does not have to show any express agreement to perform a specific act at the time of receipt of payment.

The Court cited the Supreme Court's holding in Evans ...

This case addressed two issues arising out of America's growing abhorrence with child sexual molestation. First, the Court addressed the issue of whether a 39-year old defendant could be ordered to pay, as part of his restitution obligations, the psychiatric expenses incurred by his 14-year-old lover; and, second, the Court ...

In this case the First Circuit reversed an enhanced sentence for trafficking in "sexually explicit" materials by concluding that the nude photograph of a young female did not meet the statutory definition of a lascivious exhibition of the genitals.

The defendant in this case pled guilty to one charge of ...

Here the Court held that construing the Immigration and Naturalization Act to bar discretionary relief to aliens in deportation hearings, but not those in exclusion proceedings, violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

The petitioner argued that the BIA's interpretation of § 440(d), denying § 212(c) relief to ...

In this case Judge Furgeson concluded that US Border agents lacked reasonable suspicion to stop Hispanic drives more then 50 miles from the mexican border; and he reviewed in detail the law dealing with roving patrols.

In these two consolidated cases Judge Furgeson concluded that roving patrols of U.S. Border ...

This appeal, involving a Federal prosecution under the Hobbs Act (18 U.S.C. § 1951) of the defendant for a series of bank robberies in New Mexico, raised a number of issues, the most interesting of which was a challenge to the use of "impermissibly suggestive" photo-array evidence that was used ...

In 1824, the Supreme Court established the rule that when a criminal trial ends in a mistrial, reprosecution is permitted only if there was "manifest necessity" for the mistrial or if the "ends of public justice" would otherwise be defeated. (U.S. v. Perez, 22 U.S. 579 (1824)). This is a ...

Here the Court held that the admission of a 17-year old mail fraud conviction was improper under Rule 609(b) because it improperly balanced the probative value of that evidence and its prejudicial effect.

The Court observed: "Rule 609(b) provides that a conviction more than ten years old is not admissible ...

The Court cited the express language of § 3664(f)(2) which states that the district court "shall specify in the restitution order the manner in which, and the schedule according to which, the restitution is to be paid." It then noted that " the District Court failed to satisfy the remaining ...

This case is noted for its discussion of the Government's growing practice of seizing computers and then rummaging through all of the files on that computer in its efforts to discover evidence of some crime. (For more on that topic, see the Quote of the Week below). Here, the defendant ...

QUOTE OF THE WEEK - The temptation of seizing computers as a means of discovering crimes.

"Since electronic storage is likely to contain a greater quantity and variety of information than any previous storage method, computers make tempting targets in searches for incriminating information." Raphael Winick, Searches and Seizures of ...

See also U.S. v. Davis, 151 F.3d 1304, 1307-08 (10th Cir. 1998), U.S. v. Bermudez-Plaza, 221 F.3d 231 (1st Cir. 8/2/00), and U.S. v. Cofield, No. 99-5437 (6th Cir. 11/22/00) - all of which are in accord; but see U.S. v. Jones, 957 F.Supp. 1088, 1099-91 (E.D.Ark. 1997) - which ...

On this fourth appeal from a RICO conviction, the Court held that the district court did not err in finding that the defendant's testimony at his first trial was not corrupted by the Government's Brady violation, per Harrison v. US, 392 US 219.

With the aid of the defendant's cell-mate, the Government was able to convict the defendant in this case of a conspiracy to import into prison both marijuana and crack-cocaine. The maximum sentence for a conspiracy to distribute marijuana is five years, while a conspiracy to distribute crack would yield a ...

In this case the Supreme Court addressed what it called "a significant departure from our Confrontation Clause jurisprudence." The petitioner, his brother, and a third defendant were arrested at the end of a two day crime spree, during which they stole guns and liquor, and then abducted and subsequently killed ...

In this case the Supreme Court struck down, as unconstitutionally vague, an anti-loitering ordinance enacted by the City of Chicago which resulted in some 42,000 arrests in the three years it was enforced. The ordinance in question prohibited "criminal street gang members" from loitering in public places; and, if a ...

While the Court agreed that in financial fraud crimes (tax, wire, mail and bank fraud) the issue of materiality is an element of the crime that must be submitted to the jury, it also held that the failure to so instruct is subject to harmless error review.

This case is ...