Category: Appeals

United States v. Clark, No. 21-14473 (11th Cir. 2022) In November 2019, a grand jury convicted Clark and 32 codefendants of various controlled substance offenses. Clark eventually entered into a plea agreement with the government which included a broad appeal waiver. However, the parties were notified that the district court would reject the plea agreement […]

District Court Holds that Possession of Destructive Device in Furtherance of a Crime of Violence is Invalid for Arson United States v. Mujera Lung’aho, No. 4:20-cr-288-1 (Order) (E.D. AR, October 18, 2022) 924(c)(1)(B) has a 30-year mandatory minimum sentence. That provision is violated when persons use a “destructive device” during a crime of violence. The […]

Facts: Moore pleads to a drug case but challenged the method of finding of drug weight. Moore plead guilty to crimes involving 21 U.S.C. 841.  One of those counts involved meth in his home. Before sentencing, the probation officer consulted a lab report from the DEA. The DEA report had an amount of the weight […]

Facts:  Repeat Offender Challenges Enhancement due to Overbroad State Statute. Owen was enhanced at sentencing under the Armed Career Criminal Act, or ACCA.  In the past he pled guilty to committing the third-degree offense of selling cocaine twice in Minnesota.  These were used in his ACCA enhancement. (Note: The Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) sets […]

Government’s Breach of Plea Leads to Vacatur of Sentence on Plain Error: Malone Facts:  Malone Plead Guilty to Charges After Alleged Bond Violations Malone was charged with charges of Fraud, transportation and sale of a stolen motor vehicle.  He was arrested and placed on bond with a condition that he not violate the law again. […]

Second Amendment Rights Challenged Post Bruen In a landmark decision, the U.S. Supreme Court, through the New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen case (142 S. Ct. 2111, 2022), altered the legal landscape regarding the evaluation of restrictions on Second Amendment rights. This change has sparked a wave of challenges nationwide, the constitutionality […]

United States v. Swain, No. 21-6167 (4th Cir. 2022) Swain was eligible for a sentence reduction under section 404(b) of the First Step Act. After filing his motion, U.S. Probation determined that Swain’s Guidelines dropped from 324 to 405 months down to 262 to 327 months. Swain further argued that his Guidelines should be 210 […]

Facts: Sheperd's defense counsel also represented government's star witness. Sheperd was convicted in the district court for Medicare fraud. On appeal before the Fifth Circuit, Sheperd argued her Sixth Amendment right to effective assistance of counsel had been violated after it was discovered Sheperd’s pretrial counsel also represented one of the government’s star witnesses. The […]

FACTS:  Expert Testimony Limited, then Soler Convicted At Trial After a four-day trial, Soler was found guilty of attempting persuade, induce, or entice a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity. At trial, Soler sought to present testimony from an expert with a Ph.D in clinical psychology and who is a Board-certified psychologist working at […]

Conflicting findings result in Seventh Circuit vacating sentence in Davis. Davis Charged with Felon in Possession Davis Tosses  Handgun In June 2019, Chicago police were dispatched to investigate a report of shots fired. When officers arrived on the scene, they saw two cars had just collided. One of the cars had a bullet hole in […]