Correspondent
Capitol Hill correspondent, covers legislative and political stories.
The Fourth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a habeas corpus appeal due to lack of jurisdiction. The court found the notice of appeal was filed after the statutory deadline.
The Tenth Circuit affirmed a default judgment entered against a pro se litigant who failed to comply with discovery orders in a conversion and defamation dispute. The court rejected five appellate arguments challenging the judgment, including claims regarding standing, due process, and judicial bias.
The Fifth Circuit denied a motion by appointed counsel to withdraw from representing a defendant who waived his right to appeal. The court found a non-frivolous argument existed regarding a financial disclosure condition on supervised release.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of a motion to reduce a sentence under the compassionate release statute. The court granted appointed counsel's motion to withdraw after an independent review found no arguable issues of merit in the appeal.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed the denial of a habeas corpus petition filed by a state prisoner. The court held that the Minnesota Supreme Court did not unreasonably apply federal law when it found the admission of an improperly obtained confession to be harmless error.
The Fourth Circuit affirmed a district court's denial of a motion for sentence reduction under Section thirty-five hundred eighty-two, subsection C, paragraph two. The appellate court found no reversible error in the district court's explanation for rejecting the defendant's request for compassionate release.
The Third Circuit affirmed a four-level sentencing enhancement for possessing a firearm with a modified serial number. The court held that the presence of a separate legible serial number on the same gun does not prevent the enhancement from applying.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a motion to withdraw filed by appointed counsel. The court dismissed the appeal after finding no non-frivolous issues for review.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a district court judgment regarding a defendant's sentencing enhancement. The court held that a prior Louisiana simple robbery conviction qualifies as a crime of violence under the sentencing guidelines.
The Fifth Circuit vacated part of a district court judgment where standard supervised release conditions were not orally pronounced at sentencing. The court remanded the case for the district court to amend the written judgment to align with the oral pronouncement.
