Topic
Every decision we've filed under Criminal.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit granted a motion by the Federal Public Defender to withdraw from representing Berenice Sanchez. The court dismissed the appeal after finding no nonfrivolous issues for appellate review.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the revocation of Elliot Walker's supervised release and his 36-month sentence, holding that circumstantial evidence was sufficient to prove he possessed fentanyl with intent to distribute. The court further ruled that any potential error in admitting hearsay testimony was harmless and that the district court did not plainly err by failing to exclude retributive factors from its sentencing reasoning.
The Fifth Circuit granted the Government's unopposed motion for summary affirmance in a challenge to a firearms conviction. The court rejected the appellant's Second Amendment and Commerce Clause arguments without issuing a full written opinion.
The First Circuit affirmed Mark Anthony Figueroa's money laundering conspiracy conviction, ruling that the district court's admission of a cooperating witness's kidnapping testimony and law enforcement overview testimony did not constitute reversible error. The court held that any evidentiary mistakes were harmless given the overwhelming independent evidence linking the defendant to drug trafficking proceeds.
The Seventh Circuit affirmed Aaron Strong's conviction for witness tampering, ruling that evidence of routine federal-state collaboration on excessive force cases satisfied the statutory requirement for federal involvement. The court held that a defendant's false statements to a state investigator can constitute a federal crime when the underlying conduct is a common target of federal civil rights prosecutions.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a 12-month supervised release revocation sentence, finding no plain error in the district court's handling of the defendant's arguments regarding his original state detainer. The panel held that the sentence was substantively reasonable given the defendant's overall dishonesty and performance on supervision, not just a single relapse event.
The Sixth Circuit reversed the dismissal of ERISA claims alleging that pension plans used outdated mortality data to calculate benefits for married participants. The court held that the statutory requirement for actuarial equivalence prohibits the use of unreasonable, inapplicable actuarial assumptions that fail to reflect modern life expectancies.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed the denial of a defendant's motion for compassionate release, ruling that the district court's reliance on sentencing factors was sufficient to deny relief. The court held that any potential error regarding the defendant's extraordinary and compelling circumstances was harmless because the sentence reduction would not reflect the seriousness of the offense.
The Fourth Circuit affirmed Tomonta Simmons's conviction for unlawful firearm possession by a felon, rejecting his Second Amendment challenge to his guilty plea. The court also upheld his sentence, finding no procedural or substantive error in the district court's application of sentencing guidelines.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a 12-month prison sentence imposed on Christopher Joseph Antoun following the second revocation of his supervised release. The court held that the district court provided sufficient reasons for varying above the Sentencing Guidelines and that the sentence was substantively reasonable under federal law.