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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

District Court Has Authority to Categorically Reject Sentencing Guidelines' Cocaine Powder-to-Crack Ratio; United States v. Ricks Overruled

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In United States v. Russell , No. 07-4731 (3d Cir. April 23, 2009), the defendant challenged his sentence for possession with intent to dist...
Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Supreme Court Limits Belton Searches

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The Supreme Court issued an opinion today in Arizona v. Gant , 2009 WL 1045962 (April 21, 2009), holding that police may search a passenger ...
Monday, April 20, 2009

Cert granted in Third Circuit case striking down criminal prohibition on depictions of animal cruelty

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The Supreme Court this morning agreed to decide whether 18 U.S.C. 48, which makes it a crime to create, sell, or possess depictions of anima...

Substantive Reasonableness Review Survives: Panel Reverses Below-Guidelines 6-Year Sentence in Child Porn Case as Greater than Necessary

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Congratulations to Andrea Bergman and others at the FPD for the District of New Jersey! In United States v. Olhovsky , __ F.3d __, 2009 WL 1...

Closely Divided En Banc Court Affirms “Gilded Cage” Sentence: Gall requires great deference to district court sentencing decisions

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In United States v. Tomko , __ F.3d __, 2009 WL 1025876 (3d Cir. April 17, 2009) (en banc), the en banc Court (8-5) issued an important post...
Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Third Circuit precludes § 3582(c) sentence reduction where sentence is stipulated in Rule 11 binding plea agreement.

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In United States v. Sanchez , No. 08-1847 (3d Cir. April 3, 2009), a panel majority affirmed the District Court’s denial of Sanchez’s motion...
Monday, April 06, 2009

SCOTUS reverses Third Circuit, reinstating mandatory McNabb-Mallory rule

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In a 5-4 decision released today, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the McNabb-Mallory rule by holding that confessions taken more than six hour...
Tuesday, March 31, 2009

In a "close call," the Third Circuit finds reasonable suspicion to justify stop. Denial of Motion to Suppress affirmed.

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In United States v. Mathurin , No. 07-4576 (D.VI 03/27/09), the Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s denial of the Mathurin’s moti...
Friday, March 27, 2009

Superior Court's rejection of IAC claim involved unreasonable application of Strickland & petitioner’s proffer entitled him to evidentiary hearing

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In Siehl v. Grace , No. 07-1568, March 25, 2009, the Court of Appeals reversed the district court’s denial of Siehl’s § 2254 habeas petition...

Where originally sentenced under career offender guideline, not entitled to two level reduction under Crack Amendment

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In United States v. Mateo , No. 08-3249, March 24, 2009, the Court of Appeals joined four other Circuits in denying a motion to reduce sente...
Thursday, March 26, 2009

Former Secret Service Agent Unsuccessfully Contests Five Sentencing Adjustments Involving Intended Loss, Vulnerable Victim, Abuse of Trust, Obstructio

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In United States v. Dullum , No. 07-4502, March 13, 2009, the Court of Appeals affirmed the District Court’s ruling on five sentencing adju...
Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Supreme Court holds that failure to preserve breach of plea agreement is subject to plain error review.

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Overruling longstanding Third Circuit doctrine, ( See United States v. Moscahlaidis , 868 F. 2d 1357, 1360 (3d cir. 1989), the Supreme Court...
Friday, March 06, 2009

Scope of conspiracy dictates statute of limitations, while Third Circuit muddies law on quid pro quo bribery

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The Third Circuit today reaffirmed that, in applying statutes of limitations in the conspiracy context, the critical issue is the scope of t...
Thursday, March 05, 2009

Alien bears burden of proving invalidity of written waiver of rights in deportation proceeding

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In the context of entertaining a collateral attack on prior deportation during a subsequent prosecution for illegal reentry under 8 U.S.C. s...
Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Consent search upheld, with thorny questions of revocation and authority avoided by resort to independent-source doctrine

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The Third Circuit, in U.S. v. Price, No. 06-4503 (3/3/09) , has upheld the denial of a motion to suppress evidence found in a defendant'...
Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Money Laundering and Relevant Conduct

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In US v. Blackmon , No. 07-4237 (2/23/09), the 3rd Circuit addressed the interplay between the money laundering guideline, USSG 2S1.1(a), an...
Monday, February 23, 2009

Conviction Reversed for Erroneous Hearsay Admission; Court Holds Miranda Issue for Another Day

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Held: Out-of-court statement by confidential informant that defendant was the person who sold him the drugs in question, made 50 minutes aft...
Friday, February 13, 2009

Sentencing on Possession of Classified Documents

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In United States v. Aquino , 2009 WL 279274 (Feb. 6, 2009), the defendant received and retained documents containing classified information ...
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Habeas Corpus - Claims Relating Back/Ineffective Assistance

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In Hodge v. United States , 2009 WL 235674 (Feb. 3, 2009), the Circuit held that defendant's ineffective assistance claim in his untimel...
Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Court Distinguishes Chapter Two and Chapter Three “Victims” under the Guidelines

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In United States v. Kennedy , 2009 WL 250105 (Feb. 4, 2009), defendant worked for a non-profit corporation that received government benefit ...