Here the Court held that the procedures set forth in § 851(a)(1) are “mandatory” and stated that “if the requirement is not satisfied, a court may not enhance a sentence even if a defendant has prior felony drug convictions”.

In this case, the Court described the notification procedures set forth ...

In this case, by a 5 to 4 vote, the Supreme Court upheld a death sentence under Virginia’s “three strikes law” for a convicted murderer, who argued that he had the right to have his jurors informed that, because of his earlier criminal convictions, he would be ineligible for parole ...

In this case, District Judge Vanessa Gilmore sternly held that the plaintiff, Jerry S. Payne, a lawyer from Houston, TX, was entitled to receive $1,536,689 in actual damages, plus $1,000 in punitive damages, from the Federal Government due to a vindictive campaign of harassment and intimidation undertaken principally by one ...

Here the Court granted a downward departure based on a combination of factors, including the lesser harms provisions of USSG § 5K2.11, holding that the various factors were present to a degree not adequately taken into consideration in the Guidelines.

In this case, District Judge Roberts granted a downward sentencing ...

One of the defendants in this multidefendant drug trafficking case presented a question about whether a
provision in the continuing criminal enterprise statute was a mere penalty enhancement or an element of the crime. The Court responded by stating: "On which side of the line the item falls is rather ...

In this case, the district court applied the enhancement for using a minor to commit a crime, pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 3B1.4, stating: "[T]he evidence is clear to the Court that this defendant and his co-conspirator used or attempted to use a person of less than 18 years of age ...

Here, despite the general rule that a party generally lacks standing to challenge a subpoena issued to a third party absent a claim of privilege or a proprietary interest in the subpoenaed matter, the Government asserted that it had the right to seek to quash a defendant's Rule 17(c) subpoenas ...

In this case the Seventh Circuit rejected a constitutional claim that provisions of the continuing criminal enterprise statue (21 USC § 848) set forth element of the crime that the jury had to decide rather than mere sentencing enhancements.

Here the Court rejected a claim that the Supreme Court's decision ...

In the 3/20/00 issue of P&J, we noted two cases, U.S. v. Santana, 83 F.Supp.2d 224 (D.Puerto Rico 1999) and U.S. v. Peralta-Ramirez, 83 F.Supp.2d 263 (D.Puerto Rico 2000), in which defendants sought dismissal of their indictments based on alleged improprieties surrounding the appointment of U.S. Attorney Guillermo Gil-Bonar as ...

In this multi-issue opinion, Judge Sand refused to dismiss the governing indictment of the terrorists accused of Embassy bombings on numerous grounds, including lack of proper venue, multiplicious charges, and lack of adequate notice.

Here, while the Court ultimately remanded the case back to the district court for failing to tie its departure to "the structure of the Guidelines," it rejected the Government's claim that the court could not consider the seriousness of the prior crime.

In this case, the Government claimed that the ...

In a defense victory, the Ninth Circuit held that a defendant, who with the Government’s actual or constructive knowledge, retained counsel to represent him regarding matters that subsequently led to the filing of formal charges, invoked his Sixth Amendment right to counsel as a matter of law and does not ...

Here the Court held that the BOP's revision of 28 C.F.R. § 550.58, as applied through its Policy Statement 5162.02(7), which excluded a personer from a sentence reduction under the drug treatment program because he possessed a gun, was reasonable.

The issue addressed in this case was whether the BOP's ...

This case is noted for Judge Jones’ brilliant dissent in which he decried the “intolerable abandonment of substantive and procedural principles” that appears prevalent in so many capital cases.

Judge Nathaniel Jones’ dissenting opinion in this case was a fitting culmination to the raft of stories and studies that appeared ...

Quotes from two articles from The New York Times which commented on the prevalence of errors in capital cases in the United States.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK - More evidence of the unfairness of the death penalty in America.

On Sunday, June 11, 2000, The New York Times presented a ...

Essentially, the technical issue presented in this case was whether bank larceny under 18 U.S.C. § 2113(b) is a lesser included offense of bank robbery under 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a). A majority of five Justices held that § 2113(b) is not a lesser included offense of § 2113(b) because the ...

This is a bankruptcy case, but it examines an issue that is important to many criminal defendants: Can a criminal defendant receive a discharge of his restitution obligations through a bankruptcy proceeding? That issue is particularly significant since 1996 when restitution became mandatory in most criminal cases under the provisions ...

Here, despite the judge's order at sentencing that the defendant "shall" spend 6 months of a split sentence in community confinement, it declined to intervene when the BOP held the defendant in prison for the entire 12 months.

In this case, at sentencing, the district court imposed sentence as follows: ...

Here, with harsh words about the credibility of Memphis police officer David Tate, the Court reversed a conviction based on a search without probable cause, holding that the police created a subterfuge to search the defendants' car.

In reversing a conviction due to an improper search of a car based ...