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 …
Here are a couple of stories from around the U.S. that will interest those searching for some sanity in American criminal justice. To start, we have a story from the Federal Criminal Appeals Blog. It turns out that the government believes riding in a car with drugs, even if a defendant had no idea drugs …
Silicon Valley and the DOJ Collide in Tragedy Below is the story of PACER, Aaron Swartz, and a brilliant life cut far too short. PACER For years we’ve been working with (and silently cursing) PACER. This system, which stands for Public Access to Court Electronic Records, is an online system built and maintained by the …
As reported by The Recorder, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has done much to narrow the scope of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. In their article about the appellate decision in United states v. Nosal, the Recorder reports that you cannot be criminally prosecuted for checking out Facebook or football scores at work. …
9th Circuit Restricts Computer Fraud Prosecutions Read More »
In an article posted Thursday by former Missouri state senator Jeff Smith, a set of tips for entering federal prison were laid out. The article was written to former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojavich on his impending report to federal prison. These tips are seem very remedial to those that have been inside federal prison, they …
Electronic Decryption Orders As can be read in our previous posts (here and here), a case in Colorado has caught the attention of the nation in its implications on the 5th Amendment to the United States Constitution. This case touches on the Constitution, fraud, sex offenses, electronic freedoms, and many other incredibly important topics. Yesterday, …
The 10th Circuit, Fricosu, and the 5th Amendment Read More »
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 …
Update: Fricosu, The 10th Circuit, and the 5th Amendment Read More »
5th Amendment Under Fire in Fricosu Case Ramona Fricosu, of Peyton, Colorado is accused of being a part of a mortgage scam. In the course of the investigation against her, search warrants were executed on May 14th of 2010. In that search, the FBI took a Toshiba Satellite M305 laptop. Then came a problem. Investigators …
In Colorado, Defendants Must do Prosecution’s Job Read More »
From Crack Cocaine Sentence Reductions to Early Termination of Supervised Release November has been a big month in the world of federal corrections. Due to all the recent events, this will be a lengthy post on all matters federal-criminal. New Retroactive Crack Law The United States Sentencing Commission’s 2011 Amendments to their Guidelines Manual were …
New 2011 Amendments from U.S.S.C. With October upon us, and November first rapidly approaching, PCR Consultants is starting a yearly tradition of breaking down this year’s amendments to the United States Sentencing Guidelines as published by the US Sentencing Commission (U.S.S.C.). Each year, these amendments become active on the first day of November. To find …
