Eighth Amendment’s Prohibition on Excessive Fines
Fines and asset forfeiture are common elements of sentencing in cases involving theft or fraud. The government can seize a defendant’s assets that are alleged to have been involved in his criminal activities. However, the court may order that assets be turned back over to the defendant at sentencing. One of the ways that defendants…
Continue Reading Eighth Amendment's Prohibition on Excessive FinesSentence Reduction: Adopting the Letter, Not the Spirit of the Law
If a criminal defendant is at the point of already being convicted and sentenced to prison time for a federal offense, then a sentence reduction is a positive development. But what happens if the district court disagrees with an appellate court order for a sentence reduction based on the unreasonableness of the original sentence? The…
Read More Sentence Reduction: Adopting the Letter, Not the Spirit of the LawSupreme Court Narrows Federal Criminal Restitution
According to the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act (MVRA), defendants convicted of crimes in federal court are required to pay their victims criminal restitution for the losses that they suffered. The case of Lagos v. United States involved an issue of interpretation over the act’s language regarding what types of losses would be eligible for restitution.…
Continue Reading Supreme Court Narrows Federal Criminal RestitutionSecond Circuit Affirms $10 Million Fine for Tax Evasion
Tax evasion is a serious crime that can result in prison time and hefty fines. Defendants convicted of tax-related crimes typically receive a downward variance from the applicable sentencing range according to the Sentencing Guidelines. However, the opposite proved true for a wealthy defendant involved in a high-profile tax case in New York. The Second…
Continue Reading Second Circuit Affirms $10 Million Fine for Tax EvasionThe Effect of a Guilty Plea on an Appeal
A guilty plea does not necessarily mean that a criminal defendant gives up the right to appeal his conviction. If the defendant seeks to challenge the constitutionality of the statute that he pled guilty to violating, he may still have the right to a direct appeal from a district court’s decision. This is the principle…
Continue Reading The Effect of a Guilty Plea on an AppealCapital Punishment and the Eighth Amendment
The Supreme Court is preparing to decide a complex appeal in Moore v. Texas, which involves a defendant who was convicted of murder and sentenced to execution but claims that he is intellectually disabled. Pursuant to the Supreme Court’s decision in 2002 in Atkins v. Virginia, it is unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment to execute…
Continue Reading Capital Punishment and the Eighth AmendmentDoes Right to Counsel Begin Before Indictment?
A defendant on trial in a criminal proceeding is entitled to an attorney for his defense. In the event that a defendant cannot afford an attorney, the court will appoint one. This tenet of U.S. criminal law is widely known and has been a basic principle of criminal procedure since the country was founded. The…
Continue Reading Does Right to Counsel Begin Before Indictment?Wire Fraud and Stealing Confidential Business Information
Employees of corporations have varying levels of access to the corporation’s information that the business may consider confidential. One significant source of criminal prosecutions is the use of confidential information by employees for their own personal gain and to the detriment of the company. When does benefiting from confidential business information cross the legal line?…
Continue Reading Wire Fraud and Stealing Confidential Business InformationChallenging Federal Criminal Restitution Orders for Tax-Related Crimes
Convictions for crimes involving fraud, embezzlement or theft typically result in the defendants having to pay some amount of money in federal criminal restitution upon sentencing. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed the imposition of a federal criminal restitution order in United States v. Johnson over the objections of a defendant who argued…
Continue Reading Challenging Federal Criminal Restitution Orders for Tax Related CrimesSentencing Meaning: What Does All The Jargon Mean?
One thing about any particular industry, field of study, business, or technology is that the area seems to have its own language. The computer world, for example, seems to have a completely foreign language involving RAM, gigabytes, memory sticks, and USB ports. And what about Twitter? Does anyone remember the times when we had a…
Continue Reading Sentencing Meaning: What Does All The Jargon Mean?Reexamining Federal Supervised Release Conditions
What happens when a federal district court imposes a seemingly draconian or arbitrary condition on a defendant’s federal supervised release? Is this condition allowed to stand? The Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently addressed this issue in United States v. Mears and provided a necessary refresher on the requirement that any federal supervised release conditions…
Continue Reading Reexamining Federal Supervised Release ConditionsIs a Traffic Stop an Arrest for Sentencing Purposes?
The federal sentencing guidelines require that a court examine the criminal history of a defendant when he is being sentenced. The more offenses that a defendant accumulates, the higher the category for criminal history he falls into. The higher the category, the longer the minimum sentence that must be imposed. The Third Circuit Court of…
Continue Reading Is a Traffic Stop an Arrest for Sentencing?Sentencing for Failure to Comply with Sex Offender Registration Requirements
The First Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a federal district court’s sentencing enhancement for a defendant who served time in prison for coercion and enticement of a minor and failed to update his personal information as a registered sex offender during his term of supervised release. This article details those sex offender registration requirements and…
Continue Reading Sentencing for Failure to Comply with Sex Offender Registration RequirementsJudge Interferes with Plea Negotiations
Federal criminal defendants are entitled to enter into plea agreement negotiations with prosecutors. It is a long-standing rule that federal district court judges are not to take any part in the plea negotiations between the defendant and the prosecution. In United States v. Iazzetta, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a defendant’s restitution order because…
Continue Reading Judge Interferes with Plea NegotiationsDefining Burglary Under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA)
The Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) applies a specific set of sentencing provisions to convicted felons who use a firearm in the commission of a crime with a prior record of violent offenses. In United States v. Stitt, the Supreme Court recently addressed the question of what exactly constitutes a burglary for purposes of determining…
Continue Reading Defining Burglary Under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA)