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Author Archive | Steve Statsinger

Friday, September 28th, 2007

Crawford’s Eleven

United States v. Becker, Docket No. 06-1274-cr (2d Cir. September 13, 2007) (Calabresi, Parker, Wesley, CJJ)

At Becker’s stock fraud trial, the government introduced into evidence the plea allocutions of eleven (yes, eleven) of his co-defendants, supposedly for the “limited purpose” of establishing that the conspiracy charged in the indictment existed. The Circuit concluded that this was a Confrontation Clause violation under Crawford and, for the first time, found that such a violation was not harmless.

The court rejected the government’s claim that the district court’s limiting instructions cured the error, finding that the sheer number of allocutions and their repetitive nature suggested that the conspiracy was widespread, “making it plausible for the jury to assume that Becker was a participant simply by association with” the other conspirators, despite the instructions. In addition, the content of the allocutions was “far reaching and detailed” and significantly undermined Becker’s defense that his …

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Categories: 2255, Confrontation Clause, Crawford, harmless error, law of the case, plea allocution, Sixth Amendment, Teague, Uncategorized

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Absence Makes the Court Affirmer

United States v. Kaid, Docket No. 05-4480-cr (2d Cir. September 12, 2007) (Calabresi, Raggi, Hall, CJJ) (per curiam)

Two years after his client was convicted, defense counsel filed an affirmation stating that he was absent for twenty minutes during the testimonial portion of the trial. At issue was whether this constituted ineffectiveness. The district court had decided, rather than try to reconstruct the events years later at a hearing, that it would assume the facts to be true. It held that the absence did not constitute a Sixth Amendment violation. The Circuit, expressing some skepticism about whether the absence had been adequately established at all, nevertheless agreed. The court rejected the invitation to treat the absence as per se ineffectiveness, a doctrine that is reserved for extreme situations, such as where the attorney is not an attorney at all or has been implicated in the defendant’s crimes.

Instead, the court …

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Tuesday, September 25th, 2007

SUPPRESS NOT THESE FRUITS

United States v. Acosta, Docket No. 05-1283-cr (2d Cir. September 5, 2007) (Pooler, Parker, Wesley, CJJ)

Last term, the United States Supreme Court held that the exclusionary rule does not apply to violations of the Fourth Amendment’s “knock-and-announce” rule. Hudson v. Michigan, 126 S.Ct. 2169 (2006). Here, the Circuit, unsurprisingly, holds that the same is true for violations of the knock and announce statute, 18 U.S.C. § 3109.

It is almost too sad to blog, but here, in brief, is the court’s reasoning. Both § 3109 and the Fourth Amendment’s knock-and-announce principle “share the same common law roots, overlap in scope, and protect the same interests, which necessitates similar results in terms of the exclusionary rule’s application.” Moreover, a civil remedy is available; a citizen can file a Bivens action. This, according to the Circuit, is an adequate deterrent to federal agents who might contemplate violating the knock-and-announce statute.

However …

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33 SKIDOO

United States v. Owen, Docket No. 06-1078-cr (2d Cir. September 4, 2006 [sic]) (Parker, Raggi, Wesley, CJJ)

In case you were wondering, Rule 33 applies only to “newly discovered” evidence, and not “newly available” evidence.

Facts: Lance Owen and two co-defendants loaded five years worth of marijuana into a truck from a warehouse in the Bronx. Owen was pulled over while driving the truck, and explained, not very convincingly, that he was a mover, in the process of moving personal items to Florida for a client. When DEA agents found the marijuana in the truck, they arrested him.

Owen and the two others, Samuels and Baroody, went to trial. No defendant testified, but each, through counsel, pointed his finger at the others. All were convicted, and Judge Patterson sentenced Owen to five years’ imprisonment.

At Samuels’ sentencing, before sentence was imposed, Samuels exculpated Owen. He said that he had “hired …

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Sunday, September 23rd, 2007

Tear Up That Anders Brief – The Court Has Found An Issue!

United States v. Hall, No. 05-6919-cr (2d Cir. August 30, 2007) (Calabresi, Raggi, Hall [no apparent relation], CJJ) (per curiam)

This case adds yet another wrinkle to the Circuit’s ever-evolving Anders jurisprudence. Here, the defendant appealed a below-Guidelines sentence and counsel filed a detailed Anders brief. In that brief, counsel correctly pointed out that the district court had omitted the written statement of reasons required by 18 U.S.C. § 3553(c)(2) but argued that any claim of error on this ground would be harmless, since the court gave adequate oral reasons.

Instead of granting Anders relief, however, the Court of Appeals remanded the case to the district court with instructions to include a written statement of reasons. The Court noted that the statement of reasons might affect way that the Bureau of Prisons treats the defendant, and thus directed counsel to remain on the case until the statement is filed. This …

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Attorney’s Quick Change Of Heart Saves The Day

United States v. Razmilovic, No. 06-4198-cr (2d Cir. August 27, 2007) (Miner, Kaztmann, CJJ, Murtha, DJ).

Here, the district court’s precipitate grant of a mistrial barred the reprosecution of the defendants under the Double Jeopardy Clause.

At the end of a six-week fraud trial, and only 3 days of deliberation, the jury sent out a note, its first of this kind, saying that it was “at a dead lock. We have exhausted all our options.” The only action Judge Wexler took was to ask whether any defendant sought a mistrial. When two defendants so moved, the judge granted it.

Covering well trod ground, the Circuit concluded that there was no “manifest necessity” for a mistrial at such an early point, and thus that the two defendants who objected to the mistrial could not be reprosecuted. The court considered the complexity of the trial, the length of the deliberations, the fact …

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The Birds Were Exotic; The Appeal Was Not

United States v. Cullen, No. 06-0607-cr (2d Cir. August 23, 2007) (Cardamone, Straub, CJJ, Koeltl, DJ) (per curiam)

The United States is a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The Wild Bird Act, 16 U.S.C. § 4904, prohibits the importation into the United States of any exotic bird of a species covered by the Convention, and violators face civil or criminal penalties.

Thomas Cullen used straw purchasers to import Black Sparrowhawks, an African raptor, into the United States. He was trying to make it look as if the importation were valid under a provision permitting persons who have lived outside the United States for more than one year to import a personally owned pet, even if it is a member of one of the listed species. Cullen was convicted both of importing the birds and of making false statements to the …

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Government Has No Evidence; Court Deems It Sufficient

United States v. Parkes, No. 05-1486-cr (2d Cir. August 15, 2007) (Jacobs, McLaughlin, Calabresi, CJJ).

In a sterling example of the alchemy of result-oriented jurisprudence, here the court finds sufficient evidence of an effect on interstate commerce, even though there was none.

Otis Parkes and two others planned and carried out 2003 robbery attempt in the apartment of a drug dealer. Their target was marijuana and marijuana proceeds that the dealer kept hidden in his closet. During the robbery, one of the co-conspirators shot and killed the drug dealer. Parkes went to trial on a Hobbs Act robbery conspiracy charge under 18 U.S.C. § 1951, along with other, related charges, including murder in furtherance of a crime of violence, under 18 U.S.C. § 924(j). He received a life sentence.

The government had taken the position (a typical SDNY overreach) that it did not have to prove any effect on interstate …

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Notice No-No’s

United States v. Hargrove, No. 06-4276-cr (2d Cir. August 16, 2007) (Feinberg, Calabresi, Wesley, CJJ).

Terrence Altman had pled guilty to a drug misdemeanor (yes, there are drug misdemeanors), but violated his supervised release by using cocaine. While awaiting sentencing on that violation, he tested positive again. He admitted to that violation as well and, in all, faced a three to nine month revocation range. However, Judge McMahon sentenced him to one year in prison, without giving notice of her intention to upwardly depart.

On appeal, he argued that he should have been entitled to notice of the court’s intention to impose a sentence higher than recommended by the Chapter 7 policy statements. The Circuit affirmed.

The court began by noting that, ten years ago, it had held that there was no right to such notice, because revocation sentences are governed by Chapter 7 policy statements, and these non-binding policy …

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The Thirty Years’ War

United States v. Cuevas, No. 06-0607-cr (2d Cir. August 23, 2007) (Cardamone, Straub, CJJ, Koeltl, DJ

In this case, the defendant Jose Cuevas, who was extradited to the United States from the Dominican Republic, argued, with out success, that a 30-year sentencing cap contained in the extradition decree should apply to him.

Cuevas was charged, in the late 1990’s, with drug trafficking and money laundering offenses. He was home in the Dominican Republic at the time and, not unwisely, decided to remain there.

Undeterred, the government initiated extradition proceedings. After much diplomatic back-and-forth, the D.R. handed Cuevas over to American authorities on July 6,2002. Two weeks later, the U.S. received a copy of the extradition decree itself, signed by the president of the D.R. which invoked a treaty requirement that a “no penalty greater than … thirty years shall be imposed.” Unimpressed with this, Judge Rakoff ultimately sentenced Cuevas to …

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Don’t Go Western, Young Man

United States v. Cole, No. 06-0226-cr (2d Cir. August 9, 2007) (Sack, Parker, Hall, C.JJ)

This case demonstrates the first principle of sentencing thermodynamics: the farther a district court gets from Foley Square – here, the Western District – the more bizarre its rulings are likely to become.

Facts: Patrick Cole was the patron of a garden-variety Ponzi scheme that netted him nearly $1.5 million over four years. He pled guilty to mail fraud under a plea agreement that contained various stipulations about the Sentencing Guidelines, but that left him free to dispute the applicability of the “sophisticated means” enhancement. Cole gave the probation officer who was preparing the presentence report a copy of the plea agreement, and the officer sided with the government on this issue.

Cole also filed timely objections to the report with the district judge but, at sentencing, the judge would not even entertain those objections, …

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