Articles Posted in Criminal Law and Justice

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May 31 – June 4, 2010.

U.S. Supreme Court, June 01, 2010 Carr v. US, No. 08–1301 The Seventh Circuit’s affirmance of defendant’s conviction for failure to register as a sex offender in Indiana under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act is reversed where 18 U.S.C. section 2250 did not apply to sex offenders whose interstate travel occurred before SORNA’s effective date.

U.S. Supreme Court, June 01, 2010 Berghuis v. Thompkins, No. 08–1470 In a murder prosecution, the Sixth Circuit’s reversal of the district court’s denial of petitioner’s habeas petition is reversed where the state court’s decision rejecting petitioner’s Miranda claim was correct under de novo review and therefore necessarily reasonable under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act’s more deferential standard of review because petitioner’s silence during his interrogation did not invoke his right to remain silent.

U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, June 02, 2010 US v. Roa-Medina, No. 08-2490 District court’s denial of defendant’s motion to modify his sentence of 72-months for crack and other drug related offenses is affirmed where: 1) defendant was sentenced to a term of imprisonment that was “based on a sentencing range” of 120 months to 135 months, and his reduced sentence represented a 40% deviation from the bottom of that range; and 2) defendant’s sentencing range has not been “lowered” within the meaning of section 3582(c)(2).
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May 17-21, 2010
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U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, May 17, 2010 Parsley v. US, No. 09-1690 District court’s denial of defendant’s motion under 28 U.S.C. section 2255 motion to vacate his sentence for his drug related conviction is affirmed as the district court’s conclusion that trial counsel did not render ineffective assistance are largely uncontested and not clearly erroneous. .

U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, May 21, 2010 US v. Oluwanisola, No. 08-4442 Defendant’s convictions for conspiring to import heroin into the U.S., conspiring to possess with intent to distribute heroin, and possessing heroin with intent to distribute are vacated where the district court erred in applying United States v. Barrow, 400 F.3d 109 (2d Cir. 2005), to whether certain evidence elicited at trial would open the door to the admission of proffer statements.

U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, May 21, 2010 Johnston v. Maha, No. 08-6048 In a civil rights action regarding the conditions of plaintiff-inmate’s confinement, plaintiff’s motion for appointment of counsel in his appeal of a grant of defendants’ motion for summary judgment is granted where plaintiff’s claims met the threshold standard of likely merit and presented issues of substantial complexity such that appointment of counsel would be of significant benefit to the court.
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