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
23
Gender Discrimination in Jury Selection as Ineffective Assistance of Counsel
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | August 23, 2011 | Leave a Comment
A defendant’s right to reasonably competent legal representation is violated when the defendant’s lawyer discriminates on the basis of gender during jury selection, the Seventh Circuit ruled last week inWinston v. Boatwright (No. 10-1156). The court’s reasoning would presumably apply equally to racial discrimination. However, because of the peculiarities of federal habeas law, the particular defendant who [...]
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
17
Farewell, Judge Terence T. Evans
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | August 17, 2011 | Leave a Comment
One of Marquette’s most distinguished judicial alumni passed away last week. Judge Terence T. Evans ’67 had served since 1995 on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Before that, he served as a trial judge in federal district court and Milwaukee County Circuit Court. Judge Evans was profiled here in the Marquette Lawyer, along with his Seventh Circuit colleagues [...]
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 [...]
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
2
New Counsel, Continuances, and the Sixth Amendment — Lawyers Don’t Always Have to Take the Case as They Find It
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | June 2, 2011 | Leave a Comment
The Seventh Circuit had an interesting new decision a couple weeks ago on the Sixth Amendment right to choice of counsel, United States v. Sellers (No. 09-2516). Among other notable aspects of the case, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor sat on the panel. Here’s what happened: Sellers initially retained attorney David Wiener to [...]
Jan
6
Preview of Sykes, the Supreme Court’s Latest ACCA Case
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | January 6, 2011 | 1 Comment
The Supreme Court will hear argument on January 12 in Sykes v. United States, the latest entry in its recent series of cases on the Armed Career Criminal Act. This case may provide a good opportunity for the Court to clarify what state of mind is required for a prior conviction to trigger the ACCA’s fifteen-year [...]
Jan
4
Recommended Legal Writing Reads from Judge Easterbrook
Posted by: Susan Barranco | January 4, 2011 | 1 Comment
This past October, as a Judicial Intern at the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, I had the pleasure of attending an informal, reoccurring brown bag lunch held among the court’s clerks. We gathered in a conference room down the hall from the Dirksen Federal Building’s second-floor cafeteria to hear this session’s [...]
Dec
9
Convicted of Drug Distribution, Sentenced for Homicide
Posted by: Michael M. O'Hear | December 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment
Just in time for exam-writing law professors comes the Seventh Circuit’s opinion in United States v. Krieger (No. 09-1333) — a case that has just that sort of counter-intuitive, “it can’t be right” flavor that makes great testing fodder. Among other things, the case illustrates the odd place we have ended up in our jurisprudence on procedural [...]
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