Besser v. Walsh, No. 05-4375-pr (2d Cir. March 31, 2010) (Winter, Sack, CJJ, Murtha, DJ) While the blog does not usually cover habeas cases, this one is important, as it invalidates New York State’s discretionary felony persistent offender sentencing scheme. The decision involves five separate cases heard “in tandem,” which is what the circuit calls … Read more
United States v. Sierra, No,. 08-2761-cr (2d Cir. March 29, 2010) (Jacobs, Miner, Livingston, CJJ) Gustavo Sierra pled guilty to one count of drug trafficking and one count of money laundering. The drug count involved 21 kilograms of heroin, while the money laundering count involved the proceeds of the sale of between 2 and 3.5 … Read more
This has been a busy week in the circuit, and not just for published opinions. There are also three summary orders of interest. United States v. Harrington, No. 09-1160-cr (2d Cir. March 23, 2010), has two noteworthy features. First, at this gun possession trial, the district court allowed the defense to present evidence of, and … Read more
United States v. Janvier, No. 08-5978-cr (2d Cir. March 26, 2010)(Jacobs, Lynch, CJJ, Restani JCIT) On July 21, 2008, the last day of Janvier’s three-year supervised release term, the probation department submitted a petition to the district court alleging that Janvier had violated the conditions of his supervised release. That same day, the court checked … Read more
United States v. Sabhnani, No. 08-3720-cr (2d Cir. March 25, 2010) (Wesley, Livingston, CJJ, Restani, JCIT) The defendants, husband and wife, were convicted of forced labor, harboring aliens, peonage and document servitude, both substantive and conspiracy. The wife received an eleven-year sentence, while the husband was sentenced to forty months. The court also imposed fines … Read more
United States v. Basciano, NO. 09-0281-cr (2d Cir. March 23, 2010) (Walker, McLaughlin, Raggi, CJJ) On this interlocutory appeal, the circuit found that an indictment charging Basciano, who had previously been convicted of racketeering in conducting the affairs of the Bonanno crime family, with a successive racketeering count violated the Double Jeopardy Clause, because both … Read more
United States v. Bari, No. 09-1074-cr (2d Cir. March 22, 2010) (Cabranes, Parker, CJJ, Underhill, DJ)(per curiam) The court’s most recent per curiam addresses a district court’s use of the results of an Internet search, in part, to find that the defendant violated his supervised release. On release from a long bank robbery sentence, Bari … Read more
Here are two more interesting summary orders. In United States v. Spivack, No. 08-6091-cr (2d Cir. March 18, 2010), the prosecutor allowed a government witness to testify falsely that the defendant was a pedophile. The court characterized this as “outrageous” and as “severe misconduct.” But here, in light of the measures adopted to cure the … Read more
United States v. Van Buren, No. 08-6262-cr (2d Cir. March 17, 2010) (Walker, Straub, Livingston, CJJ) A jury convicted Van Buren of failing to comply with the registration requirements of SORNA after he moved from his hotel in Binghamton, New York, to his mother’s house in North Carolina without updating his New York registration or … Read more
United States v. Gilmore, No. 07-0349-cr (2d Cir. March 17, 2010)(Leval, Katzmann, Livingston, CJJ) In 2005, Gilmore pled guilty to producing child pornography. He faced a fifteen-year mandatory minimum and a thirty-year maximum sentence. His plea agreement included a non-binding estimate that indicated that his guideline sentence was life imprisonment but that, since this exceeded … Read more