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Monday, April 29th, 2024

Defendant’s complaint concerning scope of prior appellate mandate is barred by appellate waiver in new plea agreement, and the district court did not err in considering his sectarian motivation at sentencing

In United States v. Maalik Alim Jones, 2d Cir. No. 22-2958-cr (April 29, 2024), the panel (Walker, Park, Perez) in a per curiam opinion rejects Jones’s challenge to his 25-year sentence, imposed on remand after a prior appeal and following Jones’s guilty plea under a new plea agreement in which he waived the right to appeal “any sentence” of 300 months or lower. Jones is an American citizen who moved to Somalia and joined al-Shabaab, “an Islamic terrorist organization.” Op. 3. He pleaded guilty to various offenses based on the group’s murderous attacks in Kenya and Somalia.

Most of the issues are fact-specific, but two are worth noting.

First, despite the appellate waiver, Jones contended to the Circuit that the district court (and the Government) exceeded the scope of its prior mandate on remand (for various reasons). And he claimed that his “challenge to this Court’s mandate overrides the …

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Categories: jurisdiction, terrorism

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Categories: jurisdiction, terrorism

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Friday, November 15th, 2019

Second Circuit Holds that a Foreign National in a Stateless Vessel Can Be Convicted Under the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act Where the Offense Has No Nexus to the United States.

In United States v. Van Der End, No. 17-2926 (Nov. 14, 2019) the Court of Appeals affirmed the drug trafficking conviction of a Netherlands national intercepted at sea with cocaine bound for Canada. The defendant challenged the court’s subject matter jurisdiction and the constitutionality of the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act (“MDLEA”), and the government moved to preclude the defense from arguing at trial that the vessel was not subject to U.S. jurisdiction. The district court ruled for the government on all three issues, holding that there was subject matter jurisdiction, that the MDLEA was constitutional, and that the jurisdiction issue could not be presented to the jury. With no defense, the defendant entered an unconditional guilty plea, but raised these claims on appeal.

The Court of Appeals held that the defendant’s guilty plea waived his right to challenge the government’s proof that the vessel was subject to U.S. …

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Categories: jurisdiction, MDLEA

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Categories: jurisdiction, MDLEA

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Monday, August 5th, 2019

Second Circuit Throws Out § 924(c) Conviction Linked to Conspiracy . . . And Does Other Good Things, Including as to Rehaif

In today’s United States v. Watkins, the Second Circuit (Jacobs, Pooler, Wesley) vacated a conviction for violating 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) in relation to a conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery.  Because § 924(c)’s residual clause is “unconstitutionally vague,” United States v. Davis, 139 S. Ct. 2319, 2336 (2019), a “crime of violence” under § 924(c) is limited to an offense that “has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another.”  Because a conspiracy never fits that bill, “Watkins’s section 924(c)(1)(A) conviction” — and all others based on conspiracy — “must be vacated.”

And in United States v. Prado, the court (Leval, Pooler, Hall) threw out more convictions, this time under the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement Act.  The Coast Guard had intercepted a speed boat in international waters, found three men aboard with …

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Categories: Davis, guilty plea, jurisdiction, Rehaif

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Categories: Davis, guilty plea, jurisdiction, Rehaif

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