Pcr Consultants

appeals

Direct Appeal Issues in Federal Court – Plain Error vs. Abuse of Discretion

There are lots of issues that can be raised on direct appeal from an original sentencing hearing or trial. Too many than can be established in one blog post. Lawyers who practice in federal courts spend years litigating cases and studying law at the district level and sometimes at the appeal level. This post gets …

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2255 Motion to Vacate or Set Aside Sentence

How to file a ยง2255 Motion?   **Update** For all questions and issues concerning the recent Supreme Court decision in Sessions v. Dimaya, and how that could reduce sentences for current federal inmates who have otherwise exceeded their 1-year window, please click here. This is a very big question to answer, but the question that …

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Appeal Waivers and Supervised Release

Federal Plea Agreements The Devil is in the Details Over 95% of federal defendants plead guilty, according the the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Because of Bill Otis, Law Professor and contributor to Crime and Consequences, most plea agreements now come with appeal waivers: a waiver of the defendant’s right to appeal. On the surface, the …

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Update: Fricosu, The 10th Circuit, and the 5th Amendment

U.S. v. Fricosu 2/23/12 – As we previously discussed in this post, the government wants to force the defendant in the above-titled case to turn over an unencrypted hard drive that may or may not have incriminating evidence in it. The district judge granted the governments motion to force the defendant to supply the hard …

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