March 2013 - Federal Criminal Law Center

New bipartisan bill focuses on federal sentencing reform

Posted by Marcia Shein
On March 28, 2013
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The title of a recent media piece makes no effort to hide the author’s views on mandatory minimum sentencing and the debate regarding sentencing reform where federal crimes are concerned. Mike Riggs, an editor at Reason Magazine, calls the outcome in many cases in which a defendant received a sentence based on a mandatory minimum […]

Posted by Marcia Shein
On March 25, 2013
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“Your grandma sells crack.” That statement was allegedly uttered by an armed police officer dressed in army fatigues to a young child inside a family home that was entered pursuant to a search warrant by nine law enforcement agents in a botched drug crime raid targeting the possession and distribution of crack cocaine. The problem: […]

Posted by Marcia Shein
On March 20, 2013
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The National Innocence Project notes the special “agony of prison life” for inmates who suffer wrongful convictions for crimes they never committed. The Project notes that, on average, persons who are eventually released through post-conviction DNA evidence that establishes their innocence spend 13.5 years wrongfully locked up before they are freed. And, note many advocates […]

Posted by Marcia Shein
On March 18, 2013
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Many readers might have heard of the egregious case involving a man in New Mexico who suffered 22 months in solitary confinement in a county jail without ever being prosecuted for any criminal charges. In a sad and all-too-true tale of what sounds like a fictional account of one man’s horrific journey through the criminal […]

Posted by Marcia Shein
On March 15, 2013
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United States District Court Judge Jed Rakoff is an outspoken jurist on many things, seldom seeming to take a roundabout way with words when making a straightforward comment seems more to the point. In recent years, Rakoff hasn’t minced words on his views regarding the federal sentencing guidelines ushered in pursuant to the Sentencing Reform […]

Posted by Marcia Shein
On March 12, 2013
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In a 2011 decision in neighboring Florida, that state’s Supreme Court considered in a drug crimes case the issue of when a police dog’s alert provides a law enforcement officer with the probable cause needed for a warrantless search of a person and vehicle. The Court ruled that evidence that a dog is trained and […]

Posted by Marcia Shein
On March 8, 2013
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A former manager at a bank in Carroll County had a persistent and aggressive criminal defense attorney in her corner as she faced multiple counts of theft by taking and identity theft in a bank fraud case in a Georgia court. It was good that she did, since, after pronouncing the investigation against his client […]

Posted by Marcia Shein
On March 4, 2013
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Readers might well remember the tragic death more than a decade ago of Chandra Levy, a congressional intern, in Washington, D.C. After years of speculation and false leads, a 31-year-old Salvadoran immigrant, Ingmar Guandique, was arrested, with prosecutor securing a felony murder conviction in November 2010. That has ultimately turned out to be only round […]

New bipartisan bill focuses on federal sentencing reform

Police execution of drug warrant ends badly; wrong family targeted

Focus: Payouts to persons freed following wrongful incarceration

Neglected prisoner locked away for nearly two years settles case

Federal judge argues for sentencing reform, guidelines overhaul

Critics: U.S. Supreme Court takes wrong tack in dog-alert cases

Exonerated: Georgia jury finds bank manager not guilty of bank fraud

Defense calls out prosecutors in Levy case; will seek new trial