In United States v. Redd (Shue), No. 13-2971 (2d Cir. Nov. 5, 2013) (Jacobs, Straub, and Pauley) (per curiam), available here, the Circuit held that Alleyne v. United States, 113 S. Ct. 2151 (2013), does not apply retroactively to cases on collateral review.

Alleyne held that “any fact that increases the mandatory minimum [sentence] is an ‘element’ that must be submitted to the jury” and proved beyond a reasonable doubt. 133 S. Ct. at 2155.

Shue, whose 1996 convictions and 292-month prison sentence had been affirmed on direct appeal, and whose 2255 motion had been denied as time-barred, sought to take advantage of the new rule announced in Alleyne. Specifically, he asked the Circuit to reinstate his direct appeal so he could obtain relief under Alleyne.

The Circuit first construed the request as motion for leave to file a successive 2255 motion. The Circuit then held that leave could …

In United States v. Nunez-Banuelos, No. 12-85-cr (2d Cir. Nov. 4, 2013) (summary order), the Circuit upheld the defendant’s convictions of misusing a social security number in violation of 42 U.S.C. 408(a)(7)(B) and of wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1341. The evidence at trial showed that the defendant used a social security number that he had made up to obtain unemployment benefits from the Connecticut Department of Labor.

On appeal, the defendant argued that the evidence was insufficient to establish that he had the requisite intent to deceive. He claimed that he did not know that only United States citizens and aliens lawfully residing in the United States could receive unemployment benefits.

The Circuit rejected the defendant’s arguments. The trial evidence showed that the application for unemployment benefits asked the defendant to submit an alien registration number if he was not a citizen but that the defendant submitted a fictional social …

United States v. Harrison, No. 11-1240-cr (2d Cir. November 6, 2012) (Cabranes, Chin, Carney, CJJ) (per curiam)

Young v. Conway, No. 11-830-cr (2d Cir. October 16, 2012) (Parker, Hall, Carney, CJJ)

While decisions on state prisoners’ federal habeas corpus petitions are not consistently covered on this site, this particular case is fascinating.  In it, the circuit agrees with the district court that the New York state courts misapplied federal law in finding that the victim of a home invasion robbery had an independent basis for her in-court identification of the petitioner, Rudolph Young.

In reaching this result, the circuit relies heavily on recent scientific findings about eyewitness identification furnished by The Innocence Project, amicus curiae here. Among those highlighted are: [1] even “subtle disguises” can “impair identification accuracy”; [2] the presence of a weapon during the crime “will draw central attention, thus decreasing the ability of the eyewitness to adequately encode and later recall peripheral details”; [3] “high levels of stress have been shown to induce a …