In United States v. Lee, 15-458, the Second Circuit affirmed a conviction under 18 U.S.C. 641 and the 30-month sentence that followed. Relying in part on Apprendi, the Court concluded that a loss amount in excess of $1000 is an element of a felony offense under Section 641 and that, to allege a felony, the … Read more
Last week, the Second Circuit decided United States v. Epskamp, No. 15-2028. The Court affirmed the district court’s decisions regarding the extraterritoriality of 21 U.S.C. 959. The appeal followed a trial in front of Judge Sullivan and concerned the use of an aircraft registered in the United States as part of a scheme to fly … Read more
United States v. Jiamez-Dolores, et al., No. 14-1840(L), 14-1842 (CON) (Circuit Judges: Hall, Lynch, Chin). In addition to today’s decision in Elvin Hill, the Circuit also issued this Opinion in United States v. Jiamez-Dolores, et al. Incomplete transcript of the guilty plea. Here, only a partial transcript of the Rule 11 colloquy was produced by … Read more
United States v. Elvin Hill, No. 14-3872-cr (Circuit Judges: Jacobs, Livingston, and Droney).(Disclosure: This is an appeal that this Office litigated). In this direct appeal, Mr. Hill argued: (1) that Hobbs Act robbery (18 U.S.C. § 1951) did not “categorically” constitute a “crime of violence” under the “force” clause of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(3); and … Read more
Johnson (Bad) News: Today, the Circuit decided Hill adverse to the defendant. It holds that Hobbs Act Robbery is “categorically” a “Crime of Violence” under 18 U.S.C.§ 924(c)(3). It also holds that Johnson does not apply to § 924(c): i.e., it does not “effectively render[] the ‘risk-of-force clause’” of § 924(c) “void for vagueness.” United … Read more
Yesterday, in United States v. Carabello, 12-3839, the Second Circuit held that exigent circumstances justified the warrantless “pinging” of a defendant’s cell phone. Law enforcement officers searching for Caraballo in connection with the execution-style murder of one of his drug associates asked Sprint to utilize its emergency procedures to “ping” Caraballo’s cell phones so that … Read more
Today the Circuit amended its decision in Blow v. United States, No. 16-1530 (Katzmann, chief judge; Wesley and Hall, circuit judges). It added a single line at the end of the opinion to say that the district judge has discretion to proceed on Blow’s 2255 petition and is not required to hold the petition in … Read more
The Court today issued no published decisions in criminal cases but did decide one criminal matter in a summary order: United States v. Wilson, No. 15-1991-cr (2d Cir. July 26, 2016) (Pooler, Sack, and Lynch). Wilson had been convicted of two counts: theft of government property, which carries a ten-year maximum prison term, and aggravated … Read more
In today’s United States v. Jones, the Second Circuit (Walker, Calabresi, Hall, C.JJ.) overruled its prior precedents in light of Johnson v. United States, 559 U.S. 133 (2010), and Johnson v. United States, 135 S. Ct. 2551 (2015), to hold that “a first‐degree robbery conviction in New York is no longer necessarily a conviction for a ‘crime of violence’ … Read more
There were three summary orders from the circuit today. Remanded again: In United States v. White, the circuit reaffirmed that the district court must consider material post-sentencing conduct when resentencing a defendant. Ms. White’s case had already been remanded by the circuit once before because the district judge did not make factual findings to support … Read more