Aug
30
DOJ Changes Its Mind, Seventh Circuit Does Not
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | August 30, 2011 | Leave a Comment
As I discussed in this post, the Seventh Circuit earlier this year rejected retroactivity for the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, which softened the mandatory minimum penalties for crack cocaine offenses. In the Seventh Circuit’s view, any crack offenses committed prior to August 3, 2010, when the FSA was signed into law, must still be sentenced [...]
Aug
28
Seventh Circuit Rejects Retroactivity for Padilla
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | August 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment
In Padilla v. Kentucky, 130 S. Ct. 1473 (2010), the Supreme Court held that a lawyer provides ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to inform a client of the deportation risks that result from a guilty plea. However, the Court did not clearly indicate whether its holding must be applied retroactively to cases on collateral review, [...]
Aug
20
Judge Must Explain New Sentencing Decision After Revocation of Supervised Release
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | August 20, 2011 | 1 Comment
As I described here and here, the Seventh Circuit has an interesting line of cases that attempt to establish some minimal standards for the way that district judges explain their sentences. Add to that line the court’s decision last week in United States v. Robertson (No. 10-3543). I think that Robertson is the court’s first decision to apply the explanation requirement to [...]
Aug
18
Two Circuits Approve Use of Uncounseled Convictions Against Native Americans
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | August 18, 2011 | Leave a Comment
In Burgett v. Texas, 389 U.S. 109 (1967), the Supreme Court held that a prior conviction cannot be used to enhance a defendant’s sentence under a recidivism statute if the prior conviction was obtained in violation of the defendant’s constitutional right to counsel. Native Americans, however, must deal with an apparent loophole in the Burgett [...]
Jul
29
Trying to Hire a Hit Man? Don’t Answer Your Cell Phone
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | July 29, 2011 | 1 Comment
A new Seventh Circuit decision underscores the jurisdictional breadth of the federal murder-for-hire statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1958(a). Although solicitation to commit murder would seem a prototypical state offense, it can be prosecuted federally if money was involved and a “facility of interstate commerce” was used. And it takes very little indeed to satisfy the latter [...]
Jul
11
Seventh Circuit Reaffirms Conviction of Gov. Ryan
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | July 11, 2011 | Leave a Comment
As the Casey Anthony trial/cultural moment/media feeding frenzy reached its denouement last week, two of the biggest trials of 2006 collided in the Seventh Circuit. Five years ago, Illinois Gov. George Ryan and Enron President Jeffrey Skilling were both convicted of mail fraud. From there, the two cases took quite different paths. Ryan’s conviction was affirmed [...]
Jul
1
Sentencing Commission Makes Crack Amendment Retroactive
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | July 1, 2011 | 1 Comment
The U.S. Sentencing Commission announced yesterday that the most important of the recent changes to the crack sentencing guidelines will be made retroactive, assuming Congress does nothing to block retroactivity before November 1. Filling in the details, the Commission has now posted the unofficial “reader-friendly” version of its new retroactivity amendment. The news is very good [...]
Jun
16
Defendant Can Raise Tenth-Amendment Challenge to Her Conviction, SCOTUS Rules
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | June 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment
Earlier today, in Bond v. United States (No. 09-1227), the Supreme Court ruled that the defendant should have been permitted to raise a Tenth-Amendment challenge to the chemical-weapons statute that she was convicted of violating. In response to her indictment for violating 18 U.S.C. § 229, Bond had argued that the conduct with which she is [...]
Jun
16
Sentencing Judge May Not Lengthen Prison Term in Order to Promote Rehabilitation
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | June 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment
Earlier today, the United State Supreme Court ruled that federal judges may not impose or lengthen a defendant’s sentence in order to promote rehabilitation. In Tapia v. United States (No. 10-5400), the district judge apparently selected a sentence at the very top of the recommended guidelines range in order to give Tapia time to complete the Bureau [...]
Jun
11
Seventh Circuit Says Begay and Chambers Must Be Applied Retroactively
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | June 11, 2011 | 1 Comment
Retroactivity has been in the news a lot lately, thanks to the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s ongoing consideration of whether to give already-sentenced defendants the benefit of more favorable crack guidelines. But crack defendants are not the only inmates serving extraordinarily long terms based on recently discarded aspects of federal sentencing law. Earlier this week, the Seventh [...]
Jun
9
Court Backs Away From Begay
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | June 9, 2011 | Leave a Comment
Is the Begay revolution over? In its 2008 decision in Begay v. United States, the Supreme Court adopted a narrow construction of the Armed Career Criminal Act’s “residual clause,” limiting the ACCA’s reach to convictions for “purposeful, violent, and aggressive” crimes. (For background, see this post.) The following year, in Chambers v. United States, the Court again pared back [...]
Jun
6
SCOTUS Rules That Current Penalties Do Not Govern Whether Prior Conviction Is ACCA Predicate
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | June 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment
I continue to be mystified by the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence on the Armed Career Criminal Act. The Court has been remarkably active in taking ACCA cases in recent years, but I’m hard-pressed to see much coherence in the outcomes. On the one hand, there is the Begay line of cases, which have substantially narrowed the definition [...]
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- Alan Borsuk
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- Melissa L. Greipp
- Scott C. Idleman
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- Michael M. O'Hear
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