Equating the Government's activites in this case to a reverse sting operation, the Court rejected the Government's argument that the defendant should be held accountable for the full quantity of drugs in a warehouse.

This case involved a conspiracy to rob a warehouse. The government claimed that defendants should be ...

Case held that the revised BOP Program Statement 5162.02 which defines crimes of violence for purposes of eligibility in drug treatment programs by focusing on sentencing factors rather than the crime of conviction violates due process.

Gavis v. Crabtree, 28 F.Supp.2d 1264 (D.Or. 1998) (Judge Haggerty)
Hicks v. Brooks, 28 ...

Case held that the revised BOP Program Statement 5162.02 which defines crimes of violence for purposes of eligibility in drug treatment programs by focusing on sentencing factors rather than the crime of conviction violates due process.

Gavis v. Crabtree, 28 F.Supp.2d 1264 (D.Or. 1998) (Judge Haggerty)
Hicks v. Brooks, 28 ...

Here the Court held that the Federal Anti-Gratuity Statute does not exclude, wholesale, testimony procured from cooperating defendants pursuant to a plea agreement in exchange for testimony.

Here the Court held that the statute requiring that criminal aliens detained for deportation proceedings be held without bail pending determination of deportability violated, on its face, constitutional right to due process.

The court also noted that the predecessor to the statute in question had also been declared unconstitutional by ...

Case held that release of defendant on bail pending sentencing relinquished primary federal jurisdiction, so that state assumed promary jurisdiction when it then arrested defendant on state charge.

The Court concluded as follows: "We hold that the federal government lost its primary jurisdiction over Taylor when it released him on ...

The Court held that the defendant met his burden of proving that in the absence of the requested disclosure he would be denied a fair trial.

Here Judge Thompson held that the defendant was entitled, under Rovario v. U.S., to Government confirmation as to whether an individual who allegedly framed ...

Finding that one juror evinced actual bias in favor of the prosecutor, the Court held that the defendant's rights to a fair trial were violated, that the error was "plain" and that the conviction had to be reversed.

In this case the Court found that the juror in question, "both ...

The Court concluded: "The concept of affording cooperating accomplices leniency dates back to the common law of England and has been recognized and approved by the United States Congress, the United States Courts and the United States Sentencing Commission.".

Here the Court rejected a "Singleton-type" challenge made as part of ...

Quote from Judge Posner in which he criticized the maze of conflicting, contradictory and imprecise Federal criminal statutes that now number more than 10,000.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK - The hodgepodge of conflicting, contradictory and imprecise Federal criminal statutes.

"Criminal statutes are enacted at different times, in different moral and ...

United States v. Dorsey, Docket No. 98-35250 (3rd Cir. 1/129/99) (Judge Caldwell)
Rios v. Wiley, 29 F.Supp.2d 232 (M.D.Pa. 1998) (Judge Caldwell)

Both of these cases deal with a highly technical issue: who has the ultimate authority to determine and award credits for time served before a defendant's Federal sentencing. ...

The issue in this case was whether a defendant can be compelled to make payments of restitution beyond the expiration of his term of probation. The defendants in this case were convicted of bank fraud in 1993 and they were ordered to make restitution payments to the FDIC in an ...

This is one of those cases that shows the wondrous word games of criminal justice. One of the issues in this case was whether two of the defendants "possessed" a gun during a drug conspiracy. If they did, the courts are authorized to impose a two-level "gun bump" enhancement under ...

Joining a majority of courts, Judge Ezra held that the Federal Anti-Gratuity Statute did not extend to a prosecutor's offer of leniency to a confidential informant in exchange for his testimony.

Gavis v. Crabtree, 28 F.Supp.2d 1264 (D.Or. 1998) (Judge Haggerty)
Hicks v. Brooks, 28 F.Supp.2d 1268 (D.Colo. 1998) (Judge Daniel)

It is hard to find a more vigilant protagonist of prisoners' rights in America than Stephen R. Sady, the incomparable and indefatigable Federal Public Defender from Portland, Oregon. For years ...

This case involved four consolidated cases filed between 1970 and 1971 challenging the constitutionality of conditions and policies at the seven Pennsylvania State Correctional Institutions then in operation -- SCI Graterford, SCI Muncy, SCI Rockview, SCI Huntingdon, SCI Dallas, SCI Camp Hill, and SCI Pittsburgh. In May 1978, the district ...

Here the Court strongly rejected the BOP's contention that USSG § 5G1.3(b) conflicted with the BOP's power to award sentencing credits under 18 USC § 3585(b), as required by the Supreme Court's ruling in U.S. v. Wilson.

United States v. Dorsey, 166 F.3d 558 (3rd Cir. 1999) (Judge Caldwell)
Rios ...

Case held that the revised BOP Program Statement 5162.02 which defines crimes of violence for purposes of eligibility in drug treatment programs by focusing on sentencing factors rather than the crime of conviction violates due process.

Gavis v. Crabtree, 28 F.Supp.2d 1264 (D.Or. 1998) (Judge Haggerty)
Hicks v. Brooks, 28 ...

In this decision, which was subsequently reversed by the Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit held that a retroactive application to a parole reconsideration rule, changing frequency of required reconsideration hearing violated Ex Post Facto.

Here, relying principally on its interpretation of California Dep't of Corrections v. Morales, 514 U.S. 499 ...

This is a case that should be of interest to the growing numbers of CJA attorneys. As we all know, under the provisions of the Criminal Justice Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3006A, there are significant financial limits on the amounts of money that CJA counsel can earn in any one ...

Here the Court affirmed the use of a foreign conviction to enhance the defendant's sentence under 21 USC § 851(a), rejecting the defendant's claims that the foreign conviction did not comport to concepts of fundamental fairness and due process.

In this case, the government sought to enhance a defendant's drug ...

Here the Court held that the Government should be "estopped" from refusing to credit the defendant with time spent cooperating with the Government and said that such double credits are sometimes required to meet statutory goals.

United States v. Dorsey, 166 F.3d 558 (3rd Cir. 1999) (Judge Caldwell)
Rios v. ...

Here the Court disagreed with the holding in Boero v. DEA, 111 F.3d 301 (2nd Cir. 1997) that when the claimant clearly did not receive proper notice of the forfeiture, a hearing on the merits is available in the district court. It stated: "We respectfully disagree with the Second Circuit's ...

"QUOTE OF THE WEEK - The hodgepodge of conflicting, contradictory and imprecise Federal criminal statutes.

"Criminal statutes are enacted at different times, in different moral and penological climates, and in response to the pressures of different groups in the community. . . . ‘Present statutory criminal law on the Federal ...

Here the Court strongly rejected the BOP's contention that USSG § 5G1.3(b) conflicted with the BOP's power to award sentencing credits under 18 USC § 3585(b), as required by the Supreme Court's ruling in U.S. v. Wilson.

United States v. Dorsey, 166 F.3d 558 (3rd Cir. 1999) (Judge Caldwell)
Rios ...