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.
Earlier this week, the New York Times ran a story on the state of care, and lack of care, for women detained at the MDC in Brooklyn. In particular, it highlighted the stories of pregnant women, including one who lost her baby while in custody. The article notes that “[t]he treatment of women, pregnant and otherwise, … Read more
David Patton, the Executive Director and Attorney-in-Chief at the Federal Defenders of New York, published an opinion piece in yesterday’s New York Daily News. Patton points out that while much of the press following Bharara’s firing focused on his reputation as the “sheriff of Wall Street” or the drainer of the Albany swamp, these high-profile cases do … Read more
It looks like the work of dismantling the progress made under the Holder memo has begun. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has issued a memo directing US Attorneys to work with local law enforcement to identify the ‘criminals’ in their districts who are driving violent crime and prosecute them federally using all available tools. You can … Read more
In Beckles v. United States, 580 U.S. ___, 2017 WL 855781 (March 6, 2017) the Supreme Court held that Johnson v. United States, 576 U.S. 2551, 135 S.Ct. ___ (2015), does not apply to the Guidelines’ residual clause because “the advisory Guidelines are not subject to vagueness challenges under the Due Process clause.” Slip op. … Read more
This morning, the Supreme Court decided Beckles v. United States. You can read the opinion here. The Court held unanimously that the Sentencing Guidelines are not subject to void-for-vagueness challenges. We will update with a more detailed analysis soon.
The United States Sentencing Commission has proposed several amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines. Because the Guidelines’ worth stems from their basis in the Commission’s expertise, the reasoning for any changes proposed by the Commission can be useful in persuading a sentencing court to either follow the proposed amendment or decline to follow the current guideline. … Read more