Case Summaries
Criminal Law & Procedure
[02/08] US v. Schneider
In a prosecution for impermissibly dispensing controlled drugs, an order excluding evidence of all but one of the eighteen deaths charged in one count of the indictment and the court's placement of a ten-day limitation on the government's time to present its case is vacated where the district court's ruling effectively dismissed separately charged conduct brought by the government against defendants, and thus impermissibly intruded upon the authority of the executive branch to design a criminal prosecution in the way it deemed most prudent.
[02/08] US v. Xiong
Defendant's convictions for arson, mail fraud, conspiracy to commit arson and mail fraud, and the use of fire to commit another felony, arising from his burning down his mother's supermarket to help her collect insurance money, are affirmed as, under the Blockburger combination approach, Congress intended separate punishments for defendant's convicted offenses.
[02/08] US v. Goodpasture
District court's imposition of a 180 month sentence, as an armed career criminal, on a defendant convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm is reversed and remanded as a California offense of a lewd or lascivious act involving a person under the age of 14 is not a violent felony and as such, the 15 year minimum sentence for an armed career criminal does not apply.
[02/08] US v. Rogers
District court's imposition of a sentence of 86 months' imprisonment on a defendant convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm is affirmed where: 1) although defendant's reckless-endangerment conviction was not a crime of violence, defendant's evading-arrest offense was a crime of violence; and 2) the district court did not err in applying a four-level enhancement under the Guidelines in finding that, by preponderance of the evidence, the defendant used or possessed a firearm in connection with a felony chop-shop offense.
[02/08] US v. Bowers
Conviction of defendant for sexual exploitation of a child in the manufacture of child pornography and possession of child pornography is affirmed where: 1) district court properly denied defendant's motion to suppress as the private-citizen search that uncovered incriminating evidence did not violate the Fourth Amendment; 2) defendant's as-applied challenge under the Commerce Clause is meritless; and 3) after the Supreme Court's decision in Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005), U.S. v. Corp, 236 F.3d 325 (6th Cir. 2001) is no longer the law of the Circuit.
[02/08] US v. Patterson
Defendant's sentence for possessing a counterfeit state security is affirmed where: 1) it was not error for the district court to sentence defendant under a Sentencing Guidelines calculation of intended loss that was more than double the amount of restitution ordered in the same case; and 2) the record was not sufficiently developed to support a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel and a collateral attack is the preferable avenue for such challenges.
[02/08] Arnold v. Sec'y. Dep't of Corr.
In the government's appeal from the grant of petitioner's habeas petition, the grant of the petition is affirmed for the reasons stated by the district court.
[01/14] State of Florida v. Nelson
In a conviction of a juvenile defendant for burglary and related crime, the decision of the Fourth District is quashed and remanded as, when the State is entitled to the recapture period, a continuance that is chargeable to the defense and made after the expiration of the speedy trial period but before a defendant files a notice expiration waives a defendant's speedy trial rights under the default period of the rule.
[01/14] Johnson v. State of Florida
Defendant's request for postconviction relief is granted and the death sentences vacated and remanded where the newly disclosed evidence shows the following: 1) after defendant was arrested and counsel was appointed, the State intentionally created a situation likely to induce defendant to make incriminating statements to a jailhouse informant in violation of defendant's Sixth Amendment right to counsel; 2) although the prosecutor at defendant's first trial knew that his statements were impermissibly elicited and that his testimony was inadmissible, the prosecutor knowingly used false testimony and misleading argument to convince the court to admit the testimony; and 3) because defendant's testimony was admitted and later used by a different prosecutor at defendant's 1988 trial, and because the State has failed to show that this error did not contribute to the jury's advisory sentences of death, the death sentences are vacated and remanded under Giglio v. US.
[01/14] Ferrell v. State of Florida
In postconviction proceedings of a defendant convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death, trial court's grant of a new penalty phase but denial of guilt-phase claims is affirmed where: 1) trial court did not err in denying defendant's claims of ineffective assistance of counsel in the guilt phase; 2) defendant has failed to establish a Giglio violation; 3) defendant's Brady claims are without merit; 4) defendant's claims of ineffective assistance of appellate counsel in his habeas petition are denied; and 4) defendant's claim that his appellate counsel was ineffective for failing to raise on direct appeal a Cronic violation of per se ineffectiveness is rejected as the ineffectiveness was not apparent on the face of the trial record.
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