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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Rule of Lenity Applied to Definition of "Antique Firearm" in Unregistered Shotgun Case

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In United States v. Introcaso , __ F.3d __, 2007 WL 3104382 (filed October 25, 2007), the Court reversed the defendant’s conviction for poss...

Adverse Fourth Amendment Holdings -- Frisk Justified, "Plain Feel Doctrine" Applied

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In United States v. Yamba , __ F.3d __, 2007 WL 3054387 (filed October 22, 2007) , the Court issued two Fourth Amendment holdings adverse to...

Denial of Rehearing En Banc in United States v. Ricks

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The Third Circuit recently denied the petition for rehearing en banc in United States v. Marc Ricks , No. 05-4833 (denial filed October 22, ...
Friday, October 05, 2007

Rule 35(a)’s Time Limits on Correcting Sentencing Error Held to Be Jurisdictional

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The defendant in United States v. Higgs , No. 06-3738 (filed October 4, 2007) , was sentenced January 5, 2005, one week before the Supreme C...
Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Police Failed To Scrupulously Honor Defendant's Fifth Amendment Right/Defendant's Silence Inadmissible As Adoptive Admission

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In United States v. Lafferty , No. 06-1901 (3d Cir. September 28, 2007), the Third Circuit reversed the district court’s order denying Amy L...
Friday, September 28, 2007

District Court's Failure to Provide Notice of Above Advisory Guideline Sentence Does Not Constitute Due Process Violation

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In United States v. Ausburn , No. 06-2250 (3d Cir. September 10, 2007), the Third Circuit held that a district court’s failure to provide no...

United States v. Kikumura is Overruled

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In United States v. Fisher , No. 06-1795 (3d Cir. September 10, 2007), a split panel of the Court of Appeals reversed its prior decision in ...

Pennsylvania Conviction for Simple Assault Does Not Constitute a Crime of Violence

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In United States v. Otero , No. 05-3739 (3d Cir. September 12, 2007), the Court of Appeals for the Third held that a Pennsylvania conviction...
Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Application of Enhancement for "Pattern of Activity" Affirmed, Finding Prior Conduct Neither Too Remote in Time nor Too Different in Kind

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In United States v. Olfano , No. 06-2988 (3d Cir. Sept. 20, 2007), the panel unanimously affirmed a 188-month sentence on a conviction for r...
Sunday, September 09, 2007

Confessions Obtained During Delay in Presentment Admissible if Voluntary under Section 3501(c) / Court May Not Delegate Restitution Payment

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In U.S. v. Corley , (No. 04-4716) (Aug. 31, 2007), the Third Circuit held that under §3501(c), confessions taken outside of the six-hour “sa...
Thursday, September 06, 2007

Kemp Convictions for Honest Services Fraud Upheld - Court Did Not Abuse Discretion in Dismissing Juror

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In US v. Kemp, (Nos. 05-3477/05-3561/05-4623/05-4717/05-4846) (August 27, 2007), the Third Circuit affirmed the convictions of all defenda...
Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Downward Variance Reversed, Held Procedurally and Substantively Unreasonable

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In United States v. Goff , No. 05-5524 (3d Cir. Aug. 30, 2007), the panel unanimously held both procedurally and substantively unreasonable ...

“Downward Departure” from Guideline Sentence must fall Below Guideline Range

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In United States v. Floyd , No. 06-1513, (3d Cir. Aug. 27, 2007), the Third Circuit held that a “departure” from a Guideline sentence means ...
Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Court reverses below-guidelines sentence as substantively unreasonable

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In its 2-1 decision in United States v. Tomko , Case No. 05-4997 , the Third Circuit vacated a probation-only sentence for tax evasion as su...

Third Circuit affirms convictions and sentence in bank fraud/money laundering conspiracy

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On August 20, 2007, the Third Circuit ordered published its July 31, 2007, opinion in United States v. Greenridge , Case No. 05-4887 , which...
Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Restitution Requirements Under Section 3664(f)(2) Are Satisfied Without Express Findings

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In United States v. Lessner , the 3C addressed and rejected a number of sentencing challenges and held, inter alia, that sentencing courts n...
Wednesday, August 08, 2007

“Guidelines-centric” approach “reasonable and effective” where sentence was reduced by downward departure

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In United States v. Hankerson , No. 06-3291 (3d Cir. 7/31/07), the Third Circuit rejected as meritless appellant’s reasonableness and ineffe...
Monday, July 23, 2007

100:1 Crack/powder ratio: Cannot replace ratio, but can vary from GL based on case-specific reasons

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In US v. Ricks , Nos. 05-4832, 4833 (3d Cir. 7/20/07), the Circuit followed its prior decision in US v. Gunter , 462 F.3d 237 (3d Cir. 2006)...
Thursday, July 19, 2007

Illegal re-entry: Date offense commences for GL purposes

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In US v. Hernandez-Gonzalez , Nos. 06-1998 & 2130 (3d Cir. 7/19/07), the Circuit held that for purposes of calculating the Guidelines cr...
Friday, July 13, 2007

Third Circuit Resubmits Opinion After Panel Rehearing

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The Court granted a panel rehearing in United States v. Rivas , (No. 05-3380), blogged on this site on March 20, 2007 (see here ). The pan...