U. S. Supreme Court Happenings, Favorable Federal Circuit Opinions and Other News for the Week of April 22-26, 2024--

U. S. Supreme Court Happenings– Week ending April 26, 2024 –

The Justices will held their April 26, 2024 conference today. We expect Orders on Monday.

Based on parts of yesterday's U. S. Supreme Court’s oral argument, it sure sounds like one particularly high-profile federal defendant is poised to get at least a partial victory from that Court on his immunity claims. More broadly, as the Justices now turn from oral arguments to completing and releasing opinions, we surmise there will likely be any number of big criminal law decisions in addition to Trump v. United States that will be historic and consequential for many years as the Court wraps up its 2023 Term.

Favorable Federal Circuit Opinions for the Week of April 22-26, 2024 –

1st Circuit

United States v. Rosa, (Nos. 22-1195/ 22-1218) (1st Cir. April 26, 2024)– In this set of appeals, Reynaldo Rosa-Borges challenged two sentencing decisions by the district court: a seventy-two-month sentence following his guilty plea for unlawful firearm possession under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) and a thirty-six-month sentence for violating the terms of his supervised release for a previous conviction with this new unlawful conduct. Because the district court imposed both sentences based on factual findings derived from unreliable hearsay, the Court vacated and remanded for Rosa's resentencing.

5th Circuit

United States v. West, (No. 22-11001)(5th Cir. April 25, 2024)--West appealed the part of his sentence that ordered him to pay $6,000 in restitution. Where no proximate-cause analysis was conducted, there is no basis upon which the district court can order any amount of restitution. Because the PSR cites inapplicable statutes and the district court failed to conduct a proximate-cause analysis as required by precedent, the Court Vacated the restitution order and Remanded the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

7th Circuit

United States v. Craft, (No. 22-3015)(7th Cir. April 22, 2024)– Craft pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute over fifty grams of methamphetamine. Craft was sentenced to 150 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release. When calculating the guidelines range, the district court applied a two-level enhancement for maintaining a premises for the purpose of manufacturing or distributing a controlled substance under § 2D1.1(b)(12) of the Sentencing Guidelines. Because the record does not support the conclusion that Craft used his home for the primary or principal purpose of manufacturing or distributing drugs, the Court concluded that the district court erred in applying the premises enhancement. Thus, the Court vacated Craft’s sentence and remanded his case to the district court for resentencing.

OTHER NEWS

President Biden Issues 11 Pardons and Five Commutations to Persons "Convicted of Non-violent Drug Offenses"–
President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. is using his authority under the Constitution to advance equal justice under law by granting clemency to 16 deserving individuals who were convicted of non-violent drug offenses. The release provide the names and various details about all the clemency recipients, though more background information is given concerning the 11 pardon recipients, and the basic sentence information is provided for the five persons who received prison sentence commutations. It looks like most, but not quite all, of these clemency recipients were convicted and sentenced for crack offenses, with some of the pardon recipient crimes going back in the 1990s. Most of the commutations are for folks given decades of imprisonment in the 2010s.

Latest Bureau of Prison’s Statistics (From BOP Website):

Fair Sentencing/Retroactive Sentence Reductions 4,137 Orders Granted to date.
Elderly Offender Home Confinement 1,246. Approved to date.
First Step Act Releases 31,910 granted to date.
Compassionate Releases/Reduction in Sentences 4,704 granted to date.
Population in RRC’s 8,322.
Population in Home Confinement 4,993.

COMMENT:

It is about time that Biden start using his pardon and clemency powers. Anyone who previously filed for clemency or Pardons has to apply again with the new forms. We can help anyone interested in putting together a package to apply for same. The better the package, the better the chance. In the past, we have had many people get clemencies and a few pardons.

We are still receiving a great amount of people wanting to find out if they qualify for any of the new USSG Amendments such 814 and 821. Our FREE LOOK program ended Monday, April 1, 2024. We had hundreds of inquiries, but not many people actually qualified. Instead, we suggest that you opt for a Written Case Evaluation (“WCE”) as soon as possible to determine all remedies available to you to gain relief including all of the recent Amendments.

For the last 30 years, we have been very successful. We can help on direct appeals, 2255 motions, 2241 Petitions, First Step Act and Compassionate Release Motions, Earned Time Credits, DC Superior Court Petitions, State Post Conviction, Clemencies and Pardons and other specialized motions to mention a few avenues for relief we cover. The WCE is an excellent low cost tool to see what can be done for you at any stage of the proceedings. It is thorough and detailed from day one of your case to present with our recommendations of any remedies available to gain relief.

If you are serious about fighting your case and want us to evaluate your case to see if you may have relief coming, request a Written Case Evaluation.