Have you ever wanted to know the average length of sentences for a particular criminal history category for a particular guideline? Do you want to make an argument that cases involving MDMA see a higher rate of below-guideline sentences than other drug cases, either nationally, by circuit or by district? Then this is the website … Read more
In United States v. Jamahl Leonard, No. 15-2232-cr (Dec. 14, 2016) (Circuit Judges: Raggi, Chin, Droney), the Circuit, in a published opinion, vacates a district court’s ruling that the defendant is ineligible for a sentence reduction under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) and remands for further proceedings. But it also holds that the defendant cannot receive … Read more
On Tuesday, the Second Circuit issued a decision in United States v. Brown. The opinion presents an interesting debate about how the federal system punishes defendants accused of child pornography charges. I encourage defense attorneys to check out both the concurrence and dissent, for some powerful arguments about the risks of unreasonable sentences in child … Read more
On 12/1/16, the Second Circuit (Newman, Winter & Cabranes) handed down a decision finding that exigent circumstances justified the warrantless GPS tracking of a suspected sex trafficker. In United States v. Gilliam, the defendant, who was suspected of prostituting an underage girl, was located thanks to GPS coordinates on his cellphone provided to the police by … Read more
From SCOTUSblog: “Bassam Salman, a Chicago grocery wholesaler, received stock tips from a friend, who had in turn received inside information from Salman’s brother-in-law, an investment banker at Citigroup. Salman made hundreds of thousands of dollars from the tips, but he was also charged with insider trading and sentenced to three years in prison. Today … Read more
In an opinion written by Judge Newman, the Second Circuit today vacated the defendants’ sentences of 30 and 21 months, respectively, for food stamp fraud for the district court to consider imposing non-guideline sentences on the ground that the defendants’ Guidelines ranges were significantly increased by the loss enhancements, an unusual feature of the Guideline … Read more
On Tuesday, in Bravo-Fernandez v. United States, the Court decided that, when a jury has returned inconsistent verdicts in a multi-count criminal case—acquittals on some counts but a conviction on another—and the conviction is subsequently vacated on appeal because of erroneous jury instructions, the double jeopardy clause does not preclude the government from retrying the … Read more
No Second Circuit decisions today. But yesterday there was a decision out of the SDNY on the issue of whether a juvenile should be transferred for prosecution as an adult. Judge Paul Engelmayer decided that a juvenile who was almost 18 years old at the time he was indicted for committing a number of violent … Read more
As blogged about here, the Second Circuit held in United States v. Jones that New York robbery is not a “crime of violence” for federal sentencing purposes. And as blogged about here, the Circuit then vacated that ruling pending the Supreme Court’s decision in Beckles v. United States. Notwithstanding Jones being put on hold, Judge Cogan of the … Read more
The Supreme Court has scheduled the oral argument in Beckles v. United States for Monday, November 28. The issues in Beckles are whether the Court’s decision in Johnson v. United States applies retroactively on collateral review to cases challenging sentences imposed under the Career Offender Guideline, USSG 4B1.2(a)(2), whether Johnson renders that section of the Guidelines … Read more