In this limited ruling, the Court rejected an Apprendi challenge to the district court's determinination of drug quantity because the defendant had already stipulated to the quantity which precluded the jury from acting differently.

This is the Second Circuit’s first ruling on Apprendi v. New Jersey, 120 S.Ct. 2348 (2000). ...

The defendants in this case were planning to rob a convenience store on an Army base when two soldiers approached. After brandishing a gun and warning the soldiers to back off, one of the guns discharged, hitting one of the soldiers in the neck. The soldier eventually died from his ...

This case involved the direct appeal of a defendant convicted of dealing in crack cocaine, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison, where the potential enhanced maximum sentence was 30 years. After his brief was filed, the Supreme Court decided Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000), and ...

Here the Court agreed to grant bail pending an appeal to a defendant convicted of extortion, based in large part on the Supreme Court's decision in U.S. v. Sun-Diamond Growers, which made it likely his appeal would result in a new trial.

Here the defendant was convicted of extortion under ...

Here the Court reversed a downward departure that had been granted based on the defendant's extraordinary family circumstances and employment record, because the district court had used an improper comparision to determine what was relevant.

Sometimes it seems that almost any downward departure granted by a district judge from the ...

The defendant in this case was convicted in 1994 by a jury of two counts of distributing crack cocaine; and he was sentenced to concurrent terms of life imprisonment on both counts. He filed a direct appeal, but it was dismissed for lack of prosecution. Then, in 1999, the district ...

The court held that a plea was not rendered uninformed simply because the defendant was not told his state and federal sentences could run consecutively since to be intelligently made a defendant need only be told of the direct consequences of his plea.

While in state custody awaiting trial on ...

Here the Court denied a motion for a downward departure based on diminished capacity, both because the defendant's criminal history showed a need to protect the public and because the crime involved actual violence of the threat of violence.

In denying the defendant's motion for a downward departure under U.S.S.G. ...

Here the Court held that innocent possession is a valid defense to a charge of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon under 18 USC § 922(g)(1) and that the defendant was entitled to an innocent possession jury instruction.

Here the Court explained that "The real problem in this ...

In this case, the police allowed a television reporter into a suspect's home while they carried out a search of her home. She moved to suppress the evidence seized, arguing that the police had violated her Fourth Amendment rights in contravention of the rules laid down by the Supreme Court ...

Our final case for this week deals with one of those senseless “believe-it-or-not” prison regulations that shows anti-prisoner venom run amok. Judge Kinneary’s summary of the issues involved in this case says it all: “This case involves a First Amendment challenge to a prison policy that regulates the last statements ...

Here the Court reversed a downward departure that had been granted based on the defendant's extraordinary family circumstances and employment record, because the district court had used an improper comparision to determine what was relevant.

Sometimes it seems that almost any downward departure granted by a district judge from the ...

This case was first noted by us in the 1/31/00 issue of P&J, where we reported that District Judge Harrington of Massachusetts had granted the defendant a Writ of Coram Nobis, vacating his conviction and expunging his criminal record - long after the defendant had served his sentence of probation ...