In this case, the defendant was indicted on charges that included conspiracy to distribute marijuana. In proffer sessions held soon after his indictment, he lied to prosecutors about the scope of the conspiracy, partly for the purpose of protecting his brothers from prosecution. The falsehoods he told concedely had the ...

Set forth below is our review of the eartlier decision reported at 168 F.3d 1148 (most of which was approved by the instant decision):

The petitioner in this case was a forty-five year old man of Hispanic descent "who speaks and understands very little English." In 1994, he was arrested ...

The Court observed: "The facts here are similar to those in United States v. Coleman, 631 F.2d 908, 914 (D.C. Cir. 1980), and United States v. Clarke, 24 F.3d 257, 267 (D.C. Cir. 1994), which affirmed the admission of similar police notes and tapes that contained witness identifications of the ...

In Elkins, the Supreme Court rejected the so-called "silver platter doctrine" which holds that evidence illegally seized by state officials can be admitted in a Federal criminal proceeding, so long as the Federal officials did not participate in the original illegal seizure by the State. The Supreme Court held that ...

Here the Court held that the two-level enhancement for reckless endangerment during flight (USSG § 3C1.2) when applied to persons who were not driving the vehicle in question requires proof of more than reasonable foreseeability.

In this case the Eleventh Circuit joined a number of other Circuits in holding that ...

The defendants in this case robbed a sporting goods store and its owner of several firearms, including a machine gun. It was stipulated during trial that the stolen firearms were simply carried out of the store during the robbery and were not armed with ammunition, and were not brandished or ...

In this case the Court held that evidence obtained by a parole officer in violation of the Fourth Amendment must be suppressed in a subsequent criminal proceeding. The defendant was paroled from a Kentucky prison in 1994. Because of an extensive criminal history, he was placed under the maximum level ...

Here the First Circuit rejected the Tenth Circuit's ruling in U.S. v. Singleton, 144 F.3d 1343 as "nothing more than an aberration" and, in its "explicit and unqualified" ruling, it held that 18 USC § 201(c)(2) "does not apply at all" to prosecutors.

The Court stated: "There are several reasons ...

Here the Court held that, notwithstanding the defendant's prior invocation of his Miranda rights, law enforcement agents did not violate the defendant's rights by revealing the existence of a second investigation and asking for his help.

The principal issue in this case was whether the district court properly denied the ...

In this case, the Tenth Circuit (which brought us the Singleton case (U.S. v. Singleton, 144 F.3d 1343 (10th Cir. 1998)), has thrown another wrench into the Government's efforts to act above the law. Here, the Court held that the Federal "McDade Act", 28 USC § 530B, conclusively establishes that ...

In denying a departure based on diminished capacity, the district court stated: "I do find diminished physical capacity, 5K2.13, and emotional condition, 5H1.3. But I do not consider the proposed departure an encouraged departure. Rather, it is a discouraged departure, and I am not able to find exceptional circumstances that ...

The defendant contended that the district court erred in enhancing his sentence under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1(c) because the record indicated that he was merely a delivery person and a conduit for collections. He further argued that as a mere distributor, he was ineligible for the guideline enhancement because he was ...

This capital case from an extremely conservative Circuit is noted for its comprehensive review of the retroactivity issues raised by the enactment of the AEDPA and its analysis of the divergent views of the various Circuits.

In this lengthy review of the provisions of the PLRA which allow termination of consent decrees, a divided en banc court ultimately held that the motion to terminate was "moot", thus vacating the Court's earlier decision reported at 143 F.3d 1178.

Here the Court vacated a conviction because the district court rejected the defendant's vague statement that he had been improperly denied the right to testify on his own behalf without giving him a chance to state the claim with greater specificity.

This is one of those cases which shows that constitutional principles often depend on the make-up of the court. We first discussed this case in the 6/15/98 issue of P&J, where we noted that a divided panel of the Ninth Circuit held that a warrantless search by using a thermal ...

In the eyes of the Government, the Ninth Circuit has often been considered a dangerous, run-away maverick court. Two years ago, for example, the Supreme Court reversed 27 of the Court's 28 decisions. The instant decision will not dispel that image. This time, the Ninth Circuit has tweaked the Government's ...

Here the Seventh Circuit held that the district court had abused its discretion by excluding the testimony of a Government witness in order to remedy an attorney conflict of interest, holding that the attorney should have been excluded.

In this case the Seventh Circuit held that the district court (Judge ...

In a case of first impression, the Court held that it was not impermissible double counting to apply the enhancement contained in USSG § 2K2.1(b)(4) after the defendant's base offense level had already been determined under § 2K2.2(a)(7).

Some comments from Judge McKay on the dangers of thermal image scanners.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK - The evils of thermal image scanning devices as seen by one Judge.

"[T]he fact that the thermal imager issue is now being routinely presented to the courts around the country demonstrates that it ...