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Sunday, October 11th, 2009

Murder, She Dotes

United States v. Young, No. 07-2729-cr (2d Cir. October 8, 2009) (Jacobs, Walker, Leval, CJJ)

Defendant Laval Farmer was a member of the Bloods street gang, charged with a 2001 gang-related murder and and 2002 gang-related attempted murder, along with various associated firearms offenses. At least three years before the charged offenses he acquired the unfortunate nickname of “Murder.” At his trial the court allowed witnesses to refer to him by that name and the prosecutors to repeatedly use it in highly inflammatory ways. As a result, the court of appeals vacated the attempted murder conviction, but let the murder conviction stand based on the strength of the evidence.

Background

In July of 2001, members of a rival gang, the Crips, assaulted two members of Farmer’s Bloods crew. Farmer took it upon himself to avenge the beatings. Believing that a fourteen-year-old boy wearing blue clothing was a Crip, Farmer shot …


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Categories: nicknames, rule 404(b), Uncategorized

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Plea Circus

United States v. Carreto, No. 06-2295-cr (2d Cir. October 8, 2009)(Parker, Livingson, CJJ, Chin, DJ)

Three defendants were charged with various offenses relating to a scheme in which young women were smuggled into the United States from Mexico and forced to engage in prostitution. Soon after they were indicted, the government offered a “global” plea agreement with a February 18, 2005, deadline. Two days before the deadline, the district court had a conference to address whether the defendants would accept the plea. At that point, they were still undecided. The next day, the defendants rejected the offer and the government revoked it. The court set an April trial date.

On the scheduled date, the court selected and empaneled a jury. Just as the trial was about to commence, however, the defendants indicated that they were ready to plead guilty to the entire indictment without an agreement. The court closely examined …


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Categories: plea withdrawal, Uncategorized

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PC World

This set of per curiam decisions deals with mes rea elements.

In United States v. Romero-Padilla, No. 08-1817-cr (2d Cir. October 7, 2009) (Calabresi, Cabranes, Hall, CJJ), the court held that 21 U.S.C. § 959(a), a drug importation statute, requires the government to prove that the defendant actually, as opposed to constructively, knew that a controlled substance he distributed or manufactured would be illegally imported into the United States.

United States v. Grandt, No. 08-1834-cr (2d Cir. October 1, 2009) (Parker, Wesley, CJJ, Murtha, DJ), looked at 18 U.S.C. § 2421, one of the provisions of the Mann Act. This section makes it a crime to “knowingly” transport an individual in interstate commerce with the intent that the individual engage in prostitution. Under Flores-Figueroa v. United States, 129 S.Ct. 1886 (2008), the district court should have charged the jury that it had to find that defendants knew that individuals were …

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Sunday, September 13th, 2009

Summary Summary

Here are three more summary orders of interest.

In United States v. Delacruz, No. 08-1192-cr (2d Cir. September 11, 2009), the district court did not inform the defendant of the possibility of a forfeiture during the plea allocution, but still entered a forfeiture order at sentencing. While the allocution error was not enough to warrant vacating the judgment of conviction, the court granted a limited remand so that the forfeiture order could be vacated.

In United States v. Serna, No. 07-5288-cr (2d Cir. September 11, 2009), the court denied an ineffectiveness claim on direct review, instead of deferring judgment and inviting a future 2255 motion, which is its usual practice. Here, the court concluded “beyond any doubt” that the defendant, who avoided a ten-year mandatory minimum through “safety valve” relief, could not establish ineffective assistance of counsel.

In United States v. Valentine, No. 06-2679-cr (2d Cir. August 31, 2009), the …

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Monday, September 7th, 2009

Tapped Out

United States v. Concepcion, No. 08-3785-cr (2d Cir. August 31, 2009) McLaughlin, Calabresi, Sack, CJJ)

On this government appeal, the court reversed a district court order suppressing evidence obtained pursuant to a wiretap.

Background

One of Concepcion’s former cellmates (the “CI”) went to the FBI claiming that Concepcion planned to assist foreign terrorists in attacking the United States. Based on this, the government applied for and received authorization from Judge Marrero to tap Concepcion’s cell phone for 30 days. The wiretap uncovered no evidence of terrorism, but Concepcion’s telephone conversations led the FBI to believe that he was involved in drug trafficking.

After 30 days, the government submitted a second wiretap application to Judge Marrero that focused on this new evidence. As required under 18 U.S.C. § 2518(1)(c), the supporting affidavit detailed investigative techniques other than wiretaps that had either failed or were likely to fail. It alleged that …

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Monday, August 31st, 2009

Delay Gratification

United States v. Ray, No. 08-2795-cr (2d Cir. August 27, 2009)(Leval, Cabranes, Livingstone, CJJ)

In this decision, the court holds that an unexplained and prejudicial fifteen-year delay in imposing sentence amounted to a Fifth-Amendment due process violation, but did not violate the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial.

Background

In 1991, Ray pled guilty to her role in a $200,000 bank fraud. In 1992, the district court, unmoved by her family circumstances, sentenced her to twelve months’ imprisonment, the bottom of the then-mandatory range. Ray, who was free on bail, appealed. While her appeal was pending, the court of appeals decided a different case that eased somewhat the standard for family circumstances departures. As a result, with the government in agreement, Ray moved for a remand. The circuit granted the motion on January 21, 1993, but neither the district court nor the government took any further action on the …


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Categories: due process, speedy sentencing, speedy trial, Uncategorized

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Sunday, August 30th, 2009

Out Of Range

United States v. Main, No. 08-4088-cr (2d Cir. August 27, 2009) (Walker, Wallace, CJJ)

Christopher Main pled guilty to a crack cocaine offense pursuant to a Rule 11(c)(1)(C) agreement that stipulated to maximum sentence of 96 months, which was below the 120 to 150-month guideline range, and provided a “carve-out” for Main to seek a downward departure. The district court accepted the plea agreement, granted Main a modest departure and sentenced him to 84 months’ imprisonment.

Three years later, Main moved for a sentence reduction under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) and U.S.S.G. § 1B1.10 because the Sentencing Commission had retroactively ameliorated the guideline covering crack offenses. The district court denied the motion, and the circuit affirmed.

Under the statute, a defendant is eligible for a sentence reduction only where the original sentence was “based on a sentencing range” that the Sentencing Commission has subsequently lowered. Here, however, Main’s sentence was …


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Categories: 1B1.10, 3582(c)(2), crack amendment, Uncategorized

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Saturday, August 29th, 2009

Summary Summary

For your reading pleasure, here are more summary orders of interest:

In two related decisions, both captioned United States v. Salvagno, Nos. 06-4201-cr and 06-4202-cr (2d Cir. August 28, 2009), the defendants, who were father and son, complained of a confict of interest between some of their attorneys – they were employed at the same firm – at sentencing. The circuit concluded that the district court’s Curcio hearing, while “not examplary” was adequate because the conflict was waived by each defendant’s non-conflicted attorney, with the defendants present and “evidently in agreement.”

In United States v. Rodriguez-Nieves, No. 08-0783-cr (2d Cir. August 28, 2009), the court agreed that, where the the defendant was convicted of being the principal administrator of a continuing criminal enterprise (“CCE”) under 21 U.S.C. § 848, his convictions of two lesser included offenses – an underlying drug conspiracy count and a conviction for basic administration of the …

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Khat Man, Two

United States v. Hassan, No. 05-6949 (2d Cir. August 21, 2009) (Calabresi, Pooler, CJJ)

Hassan was convicted of three conspiracy counts – (1) importation of a controlled substance (2) distribution of a controlled substance, and (3) money laundering – along with forty-one substantive money laundering counts, in connection with his importation of khat into the United States. In September of 2008, the court of appeals reversed his conviction on the substantive money laundering counts due to insufficient evidence, and remanded for a new trial on all of the conspiracy convictions because of an erroneous jury instruction. See “Krazy Khat,” posted September 27, 2008.

Both sides sought rehearing, and this amended opinion, which deals with the claims raised in the rehearing petitions, supersedes the original without changing the outcome. In the court’s own words, here is the difference between the original opinion and the new one:

[T] his amended opinion replaces …

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PC WORLD

The court’s latest per curiam (“PC”) opinion deals with the narrow definition of “crime of violence” in the illegal reentry guideline, U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2. United States v. Gamez, No. 07-3660-cr (2d Cir. August 20, 2009) (per curiam), holds that the New York State offense of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, which makes it a crime to possess various types of firearms “with the intent to use the same unlawfully against another” is not a crime of violence under that section. The 2L1.2 definition of “crime of violence” includes certain enumerated offenses, not implicated here, as well as any other offense that “has an an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force gainst the person of another.” Since the New York statute prohibits the intended use of force, but not the attempted use of force, it is not covered by this definition. And, …


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Cap’n Crunched

United States v. Pizzonia, No. 07-4314-cr (2d Cir. August 19, 2009) (Calabresi, Straub, Raggi, CJJ)

Dominick Pizzonia, a one-time captain for the Gambino crime family, was convicted of a racketeering conspiracy and sentenced to fifteen years in prison. On appeal, he raised an unsuccessful statute of limitations claim.

The government filed the indictment against Pizzonia on May 26, 2005; since a five-year statute of limitations applied, the government had to prove that Pizzonia’s participation in the conspiracy extended past May 26, 2000.

Pizzonia’s indictment charged a broad pattern of racketeering activity encompassing the entire spectrum of Gambino malfeasance. It alleged specifically that the pattern “consisted of” seven specified predicates. The jury found that he participated in only two of them: a 1992 double-murder conspiracy and a 1994-96 gambling offense. It also concluded that these two seemingly distinct events were sufficiently related to constitute a racketeering “pattern.” Finally, although the predicates …


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Categories: RICO, statute of limitations, Uncategorized

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