In an opinion yesterday, the Second Circuit (Jacobs, Pooler, Hall) ordered a retrial of Armani Cummings based on the admission of non-harmless hearsay. Cummings was charged with killing two people in the course of committing drug crimes. A government witness testified, in essence: “Someone told me Cummings threatened to kill me.” The Court explained that this was … Read more
In U.S. v Batista, a Western District of Virginia judge hold that New York first degree robbery is divisible, that defendant does not have the burden to produce Shepard documents, and the offense does not satisfy the force clause. In less uplifting news, say goodbye to the Holder Memo. Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent this memo … Read more
In Nelson Vargas v. United States, No. 16-2112, the Second Circuit granted a motion for leave to file a second or successive Johnson-based 2255 petition challenging a 480- month pre-Booker career offender sentence. The Court wrote: “Although the Supreme Court held in Beckles v. United States that ‘[b]ecause they merely guide the district courts’ discretion, … Read more
Today, in United States v. Jenkins, the Second Circuit concluded that a 225-month sentence for the possession and transportation of child pornography was substantively unreasonable and vacated and remanded for resentencing, concluding that the district court’s sentence “went far overboard” and was “shockingly high” Opinion at 11, 12. Jenkins was convicted after trial of one count … Read more
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 … Read more
Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued this statement regarding a “Renewed Commitment to Criminal Immigration Enforcement” yesterday. It’s unclear how much it will change enforcement priorities in the ED and SDNY, but it does encourage the piling on of additional charges, such as aggravated identity theft and document fraud, in immigration cases. If you get assigned to … Read more
Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued another memo to US Attorneys this week. You can access the memo here. In it, he establishes a “Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety” to identify ways federal prosecutors “can more effectively combat illegal immigration and violent crime, such as gun crime, drug trafficking, and gang violence.” The … Read more
Today in Dean v. United States, the Supreme Court unanimously held that a district court may consider the consecutive mandatory sentence required under 18 U.S.C. 924(c) when imposing the sentence to be served on the underlying offense. You can access the opinion here. The length of the mandatory consecutive sentence bears on the factors to … Read more
Earlier this week, the Chicago Tribune ran a piece on the ND IL litigation challenging the disparate racial impact in stash house sting cases. We blogged here about the report by Columbia Professor Jeffrey Fagan. You can access Professor Fagan’s report, and other filings in the litigation, here. If you have a case involving a stash … Read more
The ACLU has come out with a new report outlining legal arguments and strategies for defense attorneys seeking to challenge evidence seized by government-installed computer malware. The government has increasingly used controversial and constitutionally-questionable hacking to obtain evidence and the report sets out Fourth Amendments challenging this practice. You can access the report here.