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Tuesday, June 28, 2016

No vindictiveness in one-month reduction on Johnson remand.

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     In U.S. v. Nerius , 15-3688, 2016 WL 3003781 (3d Cir. May 25, 2016), Nerius was sentenced to a bottom-of-the-range 37 months as a care...
Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Prostitute has Common and Apparent Authority to Consent to Search Room in Which She is Working

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In United States v. Murray, No. 15-2054, 2016 WL 1697082 (3d Cir., April 28, 2016) , Defendant challenged his conviction for distribution ...
Thursday, April 21, 2016

Supreme Court Holds Johnson Retroactive to Cases on Collateral Review

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Justice Kennedy authored the 7-1 opinion for the Court in Welch v. United States , holding that Johnson applies retroactively to cases on c...

Supreme Court Holds Guidelines Error Alone Should Suffice to Show Prejudice

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The Supreme Court reversed the Fifth Circuit in Molina-Martinez v. United States , No. 14-8913 , maintaining the approach taken by the Th...

Police Officer Acted as Mere "Listening Post" in Hospital

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Dellavecchia v. Secretary, PA DOC , No. 15-1833 , decides a 6th Amendment right to counsel issue, which may come up in non-habeas contexts. ...

Plain Error Doyle Reversal

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In US v. Victor Lopez , No. 14-4610 , the Third Circuit vacates Lopez’s conviction due to a Doyle violation: the prosecution’s repeated re...
Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Cross-examination of Allocution is Plain Error

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In United States v. Moreno , No. 14-1568,   2016 WL 53796 (3d Cir., Jan. 5, 2016) , Defendant was charged with wire fraud conspiracy, in v...
Tuesday, December 22, 2015

United States v. Doe, No. 13-4274, Opinion Published Then Vacated.

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This case concerns an appeal from the denial of a 28 U.S.C. §2255 motion filed in 2012 and a request to reopen a separate §2255 motion f...
Friday, October 02, 2015

Court denies suppression challenge, finding shareholder and corporate executive did not have reasonable expectation of privacy in employees' offices, employees' computers, or electronic files located on network server, but reverses and remands for new loss calculation in government contracts fraud case

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In a matter of first impression, the Court, in United States v. Nagle , Nos. 14-3184, 14-3422 (3d Cir. Sept. 30, 2015) , held that defendant...
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Monday, September 21, 2015

“Innocent Round Trip” Exception Not Applicable to Violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2423(b)

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In United States v. Schneider, Nos. 12-1145 and 13-1491, 2015 WL 5235131 (3dCir., Sept. 9, 2015) , Defendant was charged with one count ...
Friday, September 04, 2015

Court examines White v. Woodall, reaffirms grant of habeas relief due to Bruton violation.

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Washington v. Secretary , No. 12-2883 , 2015 WL 5103330 (3d Cir. Sept. 1, 2015), In an opinion by Judge Fisher, the panel reaffirms i...
Monday, August 24, 2015

Habeas relief affirmed: government concedes unreliable fire-science and chromatography evidence has been discredited and Court finds remaining evidence not sufficiently “ample” to prove arson and murder beyond a reasonable doubt

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In Han Lee v. Superintendent Houtzdale SCI, the Third Circuit affirmed habeas relief (under 28 U.S.C. § 2254) granted to a father who spen...
Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Martinez v. Ryan does not apply to excuse procedural default caused by attorney error at the state collateral appeal stage.

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In Norris v. Brooks ,No. 13-4448, the Court addressed a Rule 60(b) motion filed by a 2254 habeas petitioner who claimed that the case of M...
Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Doyle Error Not Harmless in Credibility Contest Between Cooperator and Accused

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In United States v.Jace Edwards , No. 14-4088, the Court remands for a new trial following the government's concession that the trial p...
Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Court Clarifies Mental State Requirement for 'Color of Official Right' Extortion, Rejects Challenges to 'Sophisticated Means' Enhancement

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In United States v.Fountain , Nos. 13-3023 &c., the Court finds occasion to clarify the elements of extortion under “color of official ...
Saturday, July 11, 2015

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Officers did not have reasonable suspicion at the moment of seizure. In   United States v. Shawn Lowe, No. 14-1108, ___ F.3d. ___, 2015 W...
Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Prosecutorial Conduct, Response to Jury's Request and Evidentiary and Sentencing Issues Denied by Circuit

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In United States v. Kolodesh , No. 14-2904 (3d. Cir. May 28, 2015), the Third Circuit affirmed the district court’s sentence of 176 months’ ...
Wednesday, June 03, 2015

Fifth Amendment Privilege Against Self-Incrimination Inapplicable to Corporate Custodian Under Collective Entity Doctrine

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In In re: In the Matter of the Grand Jury Empaneled on May9, 2014, 2015 WL 2262650, No. 15-1264 (3d Cir., May 15, 2015), a clinical blo...
Saturday, May 09, 2015

Supervised release provision requiring warrant or summons to issue before expiration of term is jurisdictional.

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United States v. Merlino , No. 14-4341 , 2015 WL 2059594 (3d Cir. May 5, 2015).   In this appeal, involving the reputed former head of t...
Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Panel's Appellate-Waiver Decision Draws Sharp Criticism from Colleagues

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The Court yesterday published a four-judge dissent from the denial of en banc review in what was arguably last year’s most important decisi...