When it Works, Sometimes it Doesn’t In our continuing exploration of 28 U.S.C. ยง2255 cases, the practice of federal habeas appeals never ceases to be amazing. And confusing. Take, for instance, the case of Howard Handa. 1 United States v. Handa, 122 F.3d 690, (9th Cir. 1997) In this case, defendant Handa was sentenced for …
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 …
Direct Appeal Issues in Federal Court – Plain Error vs. Abuse of Discretion Read More »
Today, the 2016 amendments to the United States Sentencing Commission’s Guidelines Manual go live. The topics of this year’s adjustments are: Compassionate Release from Prison; Animal Fighting; Child Pornography Circuit Conflicts; Immigration; and, Conditions of Probation and Supervised Release. Obviously, here we’ll be focusing on the Conditions of Probation and Supervised release, with some later …
Orange County, CA – Its no secret that many felons, defense attorney’s, and inmates believe that the office of the prosecutor fights unfairly and plays dirty. The reality is, there isn’t much oversight to keep prosecutors from doing so. Making matters worse, there is nearly no mechanism used to punish prosecutors who do. [simple_tooltip content=’This …
Prosecutorial Misconduct Taken to A Whole New Level Read More »
While United States Attorney General Eric Holder announced six months ago that he would be leaving his office, he is still serving and waiting for his replacement to be confirmed and take control of the US Department of Justice. In the meantime, he has not let up on his belief that criminal justice reform is …
Boston Bomber Guilty on all Counts April 8, 2015 – The trial of Boston Bomber suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been closely watched by the nation, and around the world. Although the trial itself is well outside the purview of what we do here, federal criminal law is all we focus on (in general). By now, …
The title of this post comes from this PennLive article about Vince Fumo. The original article from Philly.com details the corruption charges that landed Fumo in trouble, his prison sentence, and ensuing federal supervised release. He is now seeking early release from his federal supervised release by motioning the court through his attorney. He is …
Convicted ex-Sen. Vince Fumo wants to end federal supervised release Read More »
It Stated With A Federal Probation Violation White City, AL – A high-speed chase ended on Thursday, March 26th with the arrest of David Reynolds of Hanceville, Alabama. This, from a story posted by The Cullman Times before the weekend. Here’s how the story begins: “A high-speed chase ended in a crash south of Hanceville …
The title of this post comes from the new essay, “Threats and Bullying by Prosecutors” by Bennett L. Gershman, a law professor at Pace University. The essay, available for free right here, is definitely worth a full read at only 19 pages, but below I will take a moment to highlight some of the sections …
The United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey had some interesting comments about community release after incarceration. Normally, the American standard of criminal justice involves putting away the bad guys, and little else. After that, the narrative on crime and punishment simply stops. Unfortunately for that narrative, and fortunately for defendants and inmates, …
