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Supreme Court Unanimously Finds that Convicted Felons May Transfer Firearms from Law Enforcement Custody to a Third Party

In a decision that mandated an involved analysis of the definition of “constructive possession,” the Supreme Court decided that a convicted felon’s weapons may be transferred from law enforcement custody to a third party designated by the felon. In the unanimous opinion, Justice Kagan writes that constructive possession is only established when a person maintains […]

Jury Instructions When Dealing with Analogues to Controlled Substance

In McFadden vs United States, the Supreme Court found that the word “knowingly” in 21 U. S. C. §841(a)(1) of the Controlled Substances Act must apply not only to the verbs “manufacture, distribute, or dispense, or possess with intent to manufacture, distribute, or dispense” but also the object of those verbs, “a controlled substance.” This […]

11th Circuit Court Affirms in Wire Fraud Appeal

After being convicted in a trial by jury for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud, the defendant, J. Patrick Brester, was sentenced to four concurrent six-year prison terms and was ordered to pay over $1.2 million in restitution. His co-conspirators had all accepted plea agreements for their conspiracy to commit […]

Enticing a Minor to Engage in Sexual Activity Qualifies as Violence

In United States v. Thomas Patrick Keelan, No. 13– 11878, the 11th Circuit Court upheld an appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The defendant was convicted of enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2422(b). The district court ordered restitution paid […]

Study Shows Burglary Is Rarely a Violent Crime; Is it Time to Change the Statutes?

After reviewing nine years of national data, the authors of this federally funded study conclude that there is significant inconsistency in almost every aspect of burglary – except that the burglars most often seek to avoid confrontation with the property owners. For statistical purposes, it is classified as a property crime, but for sentencing purposes […]

Attorney General Holder Announces New Policy to Enhance Justice Department’s Commitment to Support Defendants’ Right to Counsel

Attorney General Eric Holder, along with Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole, announced today that the Department of Justice will no longer ask criminal defendants who plead guilty to waive their right to bring future claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. The new policy bolsters the department’s commitment to ensuring that individuals are ably represented […]

Supreme Court Denies Petition for Writ of Certiora

Justices Scalia, Thomas and Ginsburg filed their dissent this morning in a case in which the three petitioners had argued that their sentences would have been substantively unreasonable but for judge-found facts, and were thus illegal under the Sixth Amendment. A jury convicted petitioners Joseph Jones, Desmond Thurston, and Antwuan Ball of distributing very small […]

Police Officer and K-9 Stop Two Individuals Charged with Possessing Methamphetamine

The United State Supreme Court has granted a writ of certiorari to consider the issue of prolongation of a traffic stop by police in order to carry out a dog sniff of the vehicle. The case is Denny Rodriguez v. United States, No 13-9972 and the facts of the case are as follow: On March […]

U.S. Sentencing Commission Unanimously Votes to Allow Delayed Retroactive Reduction in Drug Trafficking Sentences

Good news today from the United States Sentencing Commission! The Commission voted unanimously to apply the reduction in the sentencing guideline levels applicable to most federal drug trafficking offenders retroactively. The Commission voted to make the drug quantity guideline reduction retroactive without any of the conditions that had been suggested by Department of Justice, but […]

Reverse Sting Operations—The American Hustle: The Unethical Use of Reverse Sting Operations and the Creation of Crime

Article By: Michael Levine, Author, Trial Consultant, Police Instructor, and Expert Witness “Relying on data taken from 45 years of professional experience as a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) supervisory agent, U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) expert on undercover and informant handling procedures, trial consultant, expert witness, and police instructor, the author details the evolution of […]

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