Criminal Law Library Blog
September 7-11, 2009.
To view the full-text of cases you must sign in to FindLaw.com. All summaries are produced by Findlaw.
U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, September 11, 2009 US v. Bucci, No. 07-2376
Defendant’s sentence, a forfeiture order and convictions for drug trafficking and related crimes is affirmed where: 1) district court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendant discovery in support of his vindictive-prosecution claim; 2) a second superseding indictment was timely filed as defendant did not “engage” in a monetary transaction until the funds were deposited into his account; 3) defendant had no reasonable objective expectation of privacy in the front of his home; 4) officers had probable cause to believe there was evidence of criminal activity in defendant’s vehicle to conduct a search; 5) district court did not abuse its discretion in allowing the government a rebuttal opening statement; 6) district court’s imposition of enhancement did not violate defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights where the court was aware of its discretion to impose a below-guideline sentence and adequately considered defendant’s argument for a below-guideline sentence; and 7) distri! ct court did not plainly err in instructing the jury that “proceeds” meant “gross proceeds” for forfeiture purposes.
U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, September 11, 2009 Simmons v. Beard , No. 05-9001 In habeas proceedings arising from defendant’s capital murder conviction, district court’s grant of habeas relief on the ground that the state prosecutors had withheld several pieces of material exculpatory evidence in violation of Brady is affirmed where the cumulative effect of the multiple Brady violations was to undermine confidence in the verdict.
U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals, September 11, 2009 Massey v. US, No. 09-1665 District court’s denial of pro se defendant’s petition for a writ of audita querela is affirmed as his claim is cognizable under 28 U.S.C. section 2255 and there is no gap to fill in the post-conviction remedies
U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, September 08, 2009 Ruelas v. Wolfenbarger, No. 08-1571 In a murder prosecution, the district court’s grant of a habeas petition is reversed where, even assuming state courts unreasonably applied federal law in determining that petitioner’s guilty plea was not improper, the inquiry became whether the failure to consider manslaughter “had a substantial and injurious effect or influence” on the determination that he was guilty of second-degree murder, and it did not have such an effect.
U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, September 08, 2009 US v. Dyer, No. 08-5671 In a drug prosecution, a denial of defendant’s motion to suppress evidence is affirmed where: 1) an affidavit in support of the search warrant established the reliability of the police’s informant; and 2) there were sufficient indicia of reliability without substantial independent police corroboration.
Continue reading