Author Archive | John Lee

Wednesday, September 8th, 2021

Convictions for “actual and attempted Hobbs Act robbery” are crimes of violence under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). And the imposition of 6 consecutive mandatory minimum prison sentences, totaling 115 years’ (based on the “stacking” of five § 924(c) convictions, running consecutively to a 10-year minimum drug sentence), doesn’t violate the Eighth Amendment. United States v.  Waite, No. 18-2651, __F.4th__, 2021 WL 3870712 (2d Cir. Aug. 31, 2021) (C.J.J. Cabranes, Raggi, Sullivan).

Waite was originally sentenced in 2011, principally to 125 years’ imprisonment based on five 924(c) counts and a drug conspiracy count. The Circuit vacated his original sentence (in 2016) because of an issue with the drug sentence. At the resentencing in March 2018, the district court subtracted 10 years from the original (20-year) drug sentence, making the new sentence 115 years, which was “the then-applicable mandatory minimum sentence for Waite’s counts of conviction”; his five § 924(c) sentences had to be “stacked” — i.e., made consecutive to each other for a total of 105 years — and the stacked 924(c) sentences had to be consecutive to the 10-year drug sentence. A few months after the resentencing, however, the First Step Act of 2018 (“FSA”) eliminated the “stacking” requirement for § 924(c) sentences.

On this appeal, Waite argued that: (1) four of his (five) § 924(c) convictions are invalid under …

Posted by
Categories: 924(c), Davis, Eighth Amendment, Johnson

Posted By
Categories: 924(c), Davis, Eighth Amendment, Johnson

Continue Reading
Friday, July 16th, 2021

Second Circuit holds there is no right to counsel on an appeal from a compassionate release motion, but an appeal is not frivolous unless it “lacks an arguable basis in law or fact.”

In United States v. Fleming, No.  20-1776 (2d Cir. July 14) an appeal from a denial of compassionate release, the Second Circuit granted a motion to be relieved filed by counsel , but denied the government’s motion for summary affirmance on the ground that the appeal was not frivolous. The motion was an Anders motion filed on the ground that there was no non-frivolous legal argument to be made that the district court abused its discretion under the Brooker standard in denying the motion, where it weighed the factors on the record and concluded that the defendant’s age and health condition (45 years old with asthma) in the context of a Covid-19 outbreak weighed only slightly in favor of release, but was outweighed by the  3553(a) factors, specifically the defendant’s record of violent crime, danger to the community, and protection of the public, and the fact that he had …


Posted By
Categories: compassionate release, right to counsel on appeal, summary affirmance

Continue Reading
Monday, April 17th, 2017

“How to Become a State or Federal Defender,” NYC Bar Association Panel, Monday, April 17

The New York City Bar Association will be hosting a panel on “How to Become a State or Federal Defender” on Monday, April 17, 6pm – 8pm. Register here.

Description:
This panel will discuss the qualifications for and application process to become a public criminal State or Federal Defender in New York. Panelists will consist of State and Federal defenders from the regions encompassing the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.

Panelists:
Shannon Cumberbatch, Recruiting and Hiring Manager, Bronx Defenders
Amanda David, Assistant Federal Defender, Federal Defenders of New York, Eastern District of New York
Jennifer Brown, Attorney-in-Charge of the SDNY Trial Unit, Federal Defenders of New York, Southern District of New York
Timothy B. Rountree, Attorney-in-Charge of the Criminal Defense Practice, Queens County, The Legal Aid Society

Moderator:
Vincent Southerland, Executive Director, NYU Law School’s Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law…

Posted by
Categories: Uncategorized

Posted By
Categories: Uncategorized

Continue Reading
Tuesday, December 6th, 2016

Supreme Court Upholds “Friends and Family” Insider-Trading Conviction

From SCOTUSblog:

“Bassam Salman, a Chicago grocery wholesaler, received stock tips from a friend, who had in turn received inside information from Salman’s brother-in-law, an investment banker at Citigroup. Salman made hundreds of thousands of dollars from the tips, but he was also charged with insider trading and sentenced to three years in prison. Today the Supreme Court upheld Salman’s conviction, rejecting his argument that he could not be held liable because his brother-in-law had not received any financial benefits in exchange for the inside information that he disclosed. The unanimous ruling – which came just over two months after the oral argument – was a big victory for the federal government, which had warned the justices that a ruling for Salman would lead to even more disclosures of confidential information by corporate insiders.”…

Posted by
Categories: insider trading

Posted By
Categories: insider trading

Continue Reading