The petitioner in this case, Kim Moss, was convicted in 1985 by a Michigan state court jury of first degree murder; and he was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. After a long and complex series of appeals that are irrelevant to the central issue of this ...
The indictment last week of New York criminal defense attorney Lynn Stewart (based in large part on intercepted communications between her and her client) (see Quote of the Week, below), and the promulgation by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) of a new series of internal regulations relating to the monitoring ...
Here, by a vote of 6 to 3, the Court struck down two provisions of the Child Protection Pornography Act of 1996 which make it a crime to possess "virtual" child pornography because the provisions were overly broad and violated the First Amendment.
It will be interesting to see the ...
The question presented in this was was whether a state drug conviction, for which the maximum penalty authorized by state law is probation, can be an "aggravated felony" triggering a sentencing enhancement under § 2L1.2(b)(1)(A) of the 2000 U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual.
The Court held that a state drug conviction, ...
The ultimate outcome in this case followed a complex procedural history. First, the Supreme Court vacated the defendant's sentence in this case and remanded back to the Eleventh Circuit for reconsideration in light of Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000). Then, on remand, on August 9, 2002, a ...
Although this case does not directly deal with persons who have been formally charged with crimes, it does deal with an offshoot of the growing web of criminal statutes that make it a crime for a parent to fail to pay child support. This decision is also noted for the ...
In this case, the Court held that Hyde Amendment Appeals(18 U.S.C. § 3006A) are governed by Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(a), and the defendant, as the prevailing party in criminal prosecution, was entitled to an award of attorney fees because the government's prosecution was "frivolous.".
Here the Court reversed, ...
