Correspondent
Capitol Hill correspondent, covers legislative and political stories.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of a defendant's request to disqualify his probation officer. The panel held that challenges to modified supervised release conditions were moot and that the district court lacked authority to order reassignment based on a self-created conflict.
The Sixth Circuit affirmed Austin David Stafford's convictions for producing child pornography, rejecting his arguments regarding the district court's jurisdiction and the factual basis for his guilty pleas. The court held that the government sufficiently established the interstate commerce nexus and that the district court properly verified the factual basis for the pleas under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11.
The Sixth Circuit affirmed a 264-month prison sentence for Kevin Willie Carter, rejecting his challenges to two U.S. Sentencing Guidelines enhancements. The court held that the factual record sufficiently supported findings that Carter acted as an organizer of a multi-participant drug conspiracy and maintained a premises for drug trafficking.
The Sixth Circuit affirmed the convictions and sentences of Dayton Peterson and John Lohden, Jr., for kidnapping, robbery, and impersonating an officer. The court rejected the defendants' challenges to the admission of text messages, the sufficiency of evidence, and the propriety of their joint trial.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed Jesse Moore's conviction for conspiracy to commit robbery and firearm offenses, rejecting his challenge to the denial of his motion to suppress. The court held that the initial police encounter was a consensual exchange and that the subsequent search of the property fell under the open fields doctrine.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed a 60-month prison sentence imposed on Damon Eugene Houston for violating conditions of supervised release in two prior federal cases. The court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion by ordering consecutive sentences and by properly weighing the mitigating evidence presented by the defendant.
The Eleventh Circuit granted a motion by appointed counsel to withdraw from representing the defendant in a direct criminal appeal. The court affirmed the conviction and sentence after an independent review found no arguable issues of merit.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit dismissed an appeal filed by Norvell Crump against federal prison officials. The dismissal was issued due to a lack of prosecution by the appellant.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit dismissed an appeal regarding a sentence for illegal reentry. The court found the case moot because the defendant was released from prison while the appeal was pending.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a life sentence imposed on a defendant convicted of enticement and attempted enticement of a minor. The court held that the defendant failed to demonstrate that the district court committed error in balancing sentencing factors or considering mitigating evidence regarding his history of childhood sexual abuse.
