Correspondent
Capitol Hill correspondent, covers legislative and political stories.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit granted a defendant's unopposed motion to remand his case for resentencing. The court vacated the original sentence and directed the district court to conduct proceedings necessary to resentence the defendant in accordance with the motion filed in this court.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed a district court's denial of a sentence reduction motion for a defendant convicted of second-degree murder. The appellate court found no abuse of discretion in the lower court's weighing of the defendant's egregious offense conduct and ongoing disciplinary issues against his rehabilitative efforts.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed a seventy-two-month prison sentence for a defendant convicted of mail fraud and aggravated identity theft. The court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in rejecting arguments based on national sentencing averages and mitigating factors.
The Seventh Circuit affirmed a conviction for wire fraud and money laundering, rejecting the defendant's claim that admitting WhatsApp messages violated his right to testify. The court held that using a defendant's discovery production to authenticate evidence does not infringe upon the constitutional right to testify.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed a defendant's sentence for drug conspiracy, rejecting her claim that the district court failed to properly weigh sentencing factors. The court held that the district court acted within its discretion by considering the defendant's health issues while emphasizing the need for deterrence.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed a district court's revocation of supervised release and imposition of a twenty-four-month prison sentence. The panel found the within-Guidelines-range sentence was not unreasonable and granted counsel leave to withdraw.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the conviction of Albert Cole for drug distribution. The court rejected Cole's challenges regarding the nondisclosure of a confidential informant and the admission of recorded conversations and expert testimony on drug code words.
The Third Circuit affirmed the appellant's drug trafficking and firearm convictions but vacated his mandatory life sentence for remand.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the convictions and sentence of Michael Christopher Rowser for conspiracy to commit bribery and fraud. The court held that circumstantial evidence was sufficient to prove the defendant's guilt and that the district court did not abuse its discretion in sentencing.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of a federal prisoner's motion to correct plain errors. The court held that Rule fifty-two, subsection b does not apply to district courts and that the motion was untimely or barred as a successive habeas petition.
