Today, June 30, was Justice Stephen Breyer`s last day on the Supreme Court. It`s now the first day that we have a former public defender on the high court, with Ketanji Brown Jackson replacing Breyer. It`s so rare to see public defenders rise through the judicial ranks, and unheard of for them to be considered…
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) held on June 21, 2022, that an attempted Hobbs Act robbery was not categorically a crime of violence to support a separate conviction for use of a firearm under federal law, despite the fact that someone was shot and killed during the offense. It was yet another…
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) held on June 21, 2022, that a federal court`s authority to invoke the All Writs Act in aid of a habeas case was limited by the restrictions under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), further hampering the ability of the federal courts in granting habeas…
The Supreme Court untied the hands of federal sentencing judges today by holding that, unless the statutory provision allowing for a sentence reduction expressly prevents the judge from considering certain facts in crafting the new sentence, the judge may use his broad discretion to impose whatever sentence he sees fit in that case. See Concepcion…
The biggest mistake I see sex offenders make in prison is trying to be something they`re not: a non-sex offender. If there`s one thing that`ll lead to immediate threats of harm, it`s trying to fit in with a group in prison you don`t belong to by hiding your charges. The problem is that the truth…
Federal Bureau of Prisons policy says that any female prisoner whose pregnancy is the result of rape or incest, or that threatens her life, can get a government-funded abortion with all the medical care and counseling that goes along with that traumatic event. Pregnant prisoners can also request an abortion, if they have the money…
Contrary to popular belief (if you believe the news media), the Supreme Court`s decision in Taylor v. United States, No. 20-1459 (June 21, 2022), had absolutely nothing to do with weakening federal gun laws. In fact, it couldn`t have done so because the case was all about whether an attempted robbery, under federal law, was…
Expanding the savings clause yet again, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held on April 4, 2022, that the one-year time limit for filing a motion under 28 U.S.C. sec 2255 rendered the remedy “inadequate or ineffective” to invoke the savings clause, and vacated an illegal sentence. At the time of sentencing,…
In a ruling that will likely change how petitioners in federal habeas corpus cases challenge “mistakes” in their cases, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) held on June 13, 2022, that all mistakes of law in a federal habeas case include judicial mistakes, which fall under a strict one-year time limit. When Dexter…
The data is out for 2021 and for the first time there were more federal drug convictions than immigration offenses. There were also many more sex offense cases than ever before, and (unsurprisingly) a bigger crackdown on gun crimes. Here`s how the numbers break down from the recent report from the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC)….
