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Thursday, May 19, 2011

Mere Presence of Firearm Not Sufficient to Warrant Four-level Enhancement under U.S.S.G § 2K2.1(b)(6)

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In United States v. West , No. 09-2860 (3d Cir., April 29, 2011), the defendant challenged the four-level enhancement applied to his sentenc...
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Court upholds Iranian trade sanctions regime in face of broad constitutional challenges

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In United States v. Ali Amirnazmi , No. 10-1198 (May 13, 2011), the Court affirms on all counts a chemical engineer's conviction for mar...
Tuesday, April 26, 2011

General right to counsel with no temporal reference informs suspect he has a right to an attorney during questioning

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In United States v. Warren , No. 10-1598 (April 21, 2011), the Third Circuit affirmed denial of a motion to suppress statements and dismisse...

Sentencing enhancement for sadistic, masochistic, or violent materials and two special conditions of supervised release upheld

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In United States v. Maurer , No. 10-3049 (April 22, 2011) the Third Circuit affirmed the procedural reasonableness of a 60-month sentence fo...
Friday, April 22, 2011

Sentence with Large Downward Variance Reversed on Procedural Unreasonableness

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United States v. Negroni , 2011 WL 1125854 (Mar. 29, 2011). This case involved a massive fraud scheme in which the perpetrators submitted fa...
Wednesday, April 20, 2011

SORNA - Failure to Register Conviction Upheld

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In United States v. Pendleton , 2011 WL 1366382 (Apr. 12, 2011), the Circuit rejected defendant’s challenge to the sufficiency of the evide...

Dismissal of RICO Indictment Reversed - Enterprise and Pattern of Activity Sufficiently Alleged

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In United States v. Bergrin , 2011 WL 1366388 (Apr. 12, 2011), the Government appealed dismissal of RICO indictment which district court hel...

Third Circuit invalidates robbery conviction based on Brady violations and ineffective assistance of counsel

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In Breakiron v. Horn , (April 18, 2011), after the District Court had invalidated Breakiron's murder conviction and death sentence, the ...
Friday, April 08, 2011

Court Emphasizes the Strict Standard of Relief under Writ of Error Coram Nobis.

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Following his conviction for possession with intent to distribute 50 grams of cocaine base, Petitioner Gary Rhines continued to challenge hi...
Monday, March 28, 2011

Writ of Mandamus issues when District Court refuses to instruct jury on all elements of charged offense.

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While reiterating its general rule that mandamus is “a drastic remedy that is seldom issued and its use is discouraged,” the Third Circuit...

Borrower of rental car generally lacks expectation of privacy in that rental car.

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In United States v. Kennedy , No. 09-1980 (March 16, 2011) , the Third Circuit affirmed the denial of a suppression motion by a driver of ...
Monday, March 07, 2011

Court rejects Second Amendment challenges to 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1)

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Defendant James Barton entered a conditional guilty plea to two counts of being a felon-in-possession of a firearm and ammunition, in violat...
Thursday, March 03, 2011

Search warrant affidavit sufficient to establish probable cause in child pornography case despite deficiencies

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In United States v. Miknevich , 09-3059 (March 1, 2011), the Third Circuit was asked to determine whether an affidavit prepared by a law enf...
Tuesday, February 15, 2011

State Court Unreasonably Denied Brady Relief for Commonwealth’s Concealment of Evidence

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In Lambert v. Beard , ___ F.3d ___, 2011 WL 353209 (3d Cir. Feb. 7, 2011), Judge Barry authored the panel opinion granting guilt-innocence p...
Monday, February 14, 2011

Pro se notice of appeal liberally construed

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In US v. Aswa Mills, No. 10-1542 (Feb. 9, 2011) (click here), the Circuit ruled that a notice of appeal, especially if pro se , should be c...
Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Court Finds File Names are in Plain View; Looks at Consent, Inevitable Discovery and Independent Source Doctrines

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In a lengthy c.p. opinion in U.S. v. Stabile , --- F.3d ----, 2011 WL 294036 (Feb. 1, 2011), the Third Circuit found the following: (1) Cons...
Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Clear-Error Standard of Review Applies to a District Court’s Determination of Recklessness Under Franks

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In United States v. Brown, No. 09-3643 , the Third Circuit affirmed the District Court’s opinion granting the defendant’s motion to suppress...
Thursday, January 13, 2011

Collective Knowledge of Police Sufficient to Support Reasonable Suspicion for Terry Stop

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In United States v. Whitfield, No. 09-3031 (3d Cir., filed December 6, 2010, published January 6, 2011), four Camden police officers in thre...
Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Circuit Requires Relevant Conduct to Cross-Reference

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Kulick pled guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm. In exchange, the government dismissed other charges, including an extortion charge,...
Thursday, December 30, 2010

A SENTENCE TO STATUTORY MAX 30 YEARS - MORE THAN DOUBLE THE GUIDELINE RANGE AND DESPITE A 5K1.1 MOTION - AFFIRMED

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In United States v. Larkin, No. 09-2619 (M.D.PA 12/10/10), the Court of Appeals affirmed Ms. Larkin’s sentence to the statutory maximum of ...