Topic
Every decision we've filed under Drug Trafficking.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the conviction and sentence of Christopher Demon Holloway. The court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Holloway's motion to withdraw his guilty plea and that his appeal waiver was valid.
The Tenth Circuit affirmed a district court's revocation of supervised release and imposition of an eighteen-month prison term. The court held that the district court did not impermissibly rely on retributive factors when sentencing the defendant for violating her supervised release.
The First Circuit vacated a defendant's sentence because the district court failed to provide a sufficiently reasoned explanation for imposing a twenty-five-month upward variance above the Sentencing Guidelines range. This procedural error prevented the appellate court from reviewing the substantive reasonableness of the sentence, necessitating a remand for resentencing with proper justification.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed a defendant's sentence for drug conspiracy despite arguments that the career offender enhancement was improperly applied. The court held that the sentence was substantively reasonable given the defendant's extensive criminal history and the seriousness of the offenses.
The Fourth Circuit vacated a supervised release revocation sentence because the district court misclassified a drug-testing violation as a Grade B offense instead of the correct Grade C classification. The court remanded the case for resentencing to apply the proper sentencing guidelines and address potential statutory limits on the term of supervised release.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed Jacob Robinson's sentence as an armed career criminal, ruling that his prior Arkansas conviction met the statutory elements of the Armed Career Criminal Act. The court rejected arguments regarding the age of the prior offense and procedural errors in sentencing calculations while granting counsel's motion to withdraw.
The Tenth Circuit affirmed the denial of James Nemeth's motions to suppress evidence and dismiss charges, ruling that his Fourth Amendment argument was procedurally waived and his Second Amendment challenge is foreclosed by binding precedent. The court held that Nemeth failed to preserve the specific claim that a dog sniff at his motel door violated his privacy interest inside the room, and his challenge to the felon-in-possession statute is barred by the circuit's recent decision in Vincent v. Bondi.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed a 128-month sentence for drug trafficking, rejecting arguments that the drug mixture was not marketable as fentanyl. The court also found the sentence substantively reasonable given the defendant's guideline range and criminal history.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed Brent Michael Jones's conviction for felon in possession of a firearm, rejecting his constitutional challenges to the statute and his claims of involuntary confession. The court held that the firearm's interstate origin satisfied Commerce Clause requirements and that the defendant's post-Miranda waiver was voluntary.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed Timothy Peoples' cocaine trafficking conviction, ruling that any error in excluding evidence of a police officer's misconduct was harmless given the overwhelming evidence of guilt. The court further held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in instructing the jury that the evidence was legally obtained.