U. S. Supreme Court Happenings, Favorable Federal Circuit Opinions and President Biden’s Pardon Legacy and the Future of the Federal Clemency Power for the Week of November 4-8, 2024--

U. S. Supreme Court Happenings– Week Ending November 8, 2024 –

The Justices held their November 8, 2024 conference today. We expect Order on Tuesday because Monday is a Holiday.

The Supreme Court was back in action this week, and the Court released a notable new order list. At the start of the list, there were seven GVRs (Granted, Vacated and Remanded) criminal cases from four different circuits needing “further consideration in light of United States v. Rahimi, 602 U. S. ___ (2024).” We are not sure of the specifics of all these cases, but it is obvious that the Rahimi Second Amendment issue and its uncertainty is not concluding anytime soon.

What is concluding, though, is uncertainty about what the Justices are doing with the Hamm v Smith case, which the Court had relisted more than 25 times. At the end of the order list there is a two-page per curiam order sending the case back to the Eleventh Circuit. Here is how it starts and ends:
Joseph Clifton Smith was sentenced to death for the murder of Durk Van Dam. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama vacated Smith’s death sentence after concluding that he is intellectually disabled. See Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U. S. 304 (2002). Smith has obtained five full-scale IQ scores, ranging from 72 to 78. Smith’s claim of intellectual disability depended in part on whether his IQ is 70 or below. The District Court found that Smith’s IQ could be as low as 69 given the standard error of measurement for his lowest score of 72. The District Court then vacated the death sentence, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed..... The Eleventh Circuit’s opinion is unclear on [its approach to multiple IQ scores], and this Court’s ultimate assessment of any petition for certiorari by the State may depend on the basis for the Eleventh Circuit’s decision. Therefore, we grant the petition for certiorari and Smith’s motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis, vacate the judgment of the Eleventh Circuit, and remand the case for further consideration consistent with this opinion.

This GVR conclusion to this case may only enhance speculation about what various Justices might have considered the right approach to the broader issues of the Eighth Amendment jurisprudence this case could raise. It will be interesting to see what the Eleventh Circuit does upon remand and what might come before Supreme Court thereafter. Stay tuned.

Favorable Federal Circuit Opinions for the Week of November 4-8, 2024 –

Perhaps because of the presidential election, there were no new favorable federal circuit opinions this week.

President Biden’s Pardon Legacy and the Future of the Federal Clemency Power

Both Barack Obama and Donald Trump closed out their presidential terms with a significant number of clemency grants, though the processes adopted by these two presidents differed dramatically. President Biden has already taken some notable clemency actions, though what might be in store for his clemency pen in his final months remains uncertain. Perhaps even more uncertain: what should be expected regarding the future of the federal clemency power in the next presidential administration? Preident-Elect Donald Trump spoke repeatedly about pardoning persons federally prosecuted for their behaviors at the Capital on January 6, 2021. Those promises are already leading to court filings in on-going Jan. 6 prosecutions. Hours after most news outlets declared Donald Trump the winner of the presidential election, defendants started to file motions, hoping to reap the benefits. It is not entirely clear just what Trump may mean by "innocent" and "evil and bad" as determinants of who he will and will not pardon among the January 6th defendants once he gets back to the White House. In his final year in his first Term, Trump ramped up his clemency grants, though finishing with still less than 250 total grants over four years. "As President Trump has promised, he will pardon January 6th protestors who are wrongfully imprisoned by Crooked Joe Biden’s Justice Department, and those decisions will be determined on a case-by-case basis when he is back in the White House.” In the end of President Obama’s administration, there was a grant of a record number of federal commutations (over 1700). We believe that Biden will give clemencies, commutations and pardons before the end of his term as part of his legacy.

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

Fair Sentencing/Retroactive Sentence Reductions 4,149 Orders Granted to date.
Elderly Offender Home Confinement 1,246. Approved to date.
First Step Act Releases 39,672 granted to date.
Compassionate Releases/Reduction in Sentences 4,764 granted to date.
Population in RRC’s 8,355.
Population in Home Confinement 4,985.

COMMENT:

With regard to clemencies, anyone who previously filed for clemency, but not on the new forms which the Biden released earlier, they need to be refiled with a clemency package to be considered by the out-going Biden administration. Further, we suggest that January 6th defendants file their clemencies materials to Prez-Elect Trump and his team well before he takes office on January 20, 2025. In order to help anyone who is interested in filing the new clemency papers and clemency package, Alert2020 is offering a special in order to get them completed ASAP before Biden leaves office and Trump takes office. Our clemency evaluation telephone number for the above is (832) 346-0220.

The new U. S. Sentencing Guideline Amendments become effective today, November 1, 2024. Those Amendments include: (1) Acquitted Conduct; (2) Rule for Calculating Loss; (3) Circuit Conflicts; (4) Youthful Individuals; and (5) Miscellaneous. We have also received a lot of inquiries about 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g) & 924(c) convictions based on the recent Rahimi decision and circuit decisions such as Range and Williams based on last year’s Bruen Supreme Court decision. Beginning October 25, 2024 until November 8, 2024, we will be evaluating cases for the new Amendments and/or the firearm convictions. Howeverk contrary to inmate rumor at inmate.com, there are no changes to § 924(c) convictions. We will need an outside contact’s name and telephone number, where you went to court, and your case number. We will contact your contact and let them know if you have any potential relief available from the above remedies. Our case evaluation telephone number for the above is (832) 346-0220.

The Corrlinks/TRULINCS website has been changed. A new policy effective September 30, 2024, where the BOP is only allowing groups of ten (10) emails may be sent out at a time. Alert2020 has several different emails which we have acquired through all the years we have produced and published the Alert Update. Currently, we have groups of 1000 inmates so that when we send out the weekly Alert Update, we can send out 1000 emails at a time and we do that to all the thousands of readers and our followers each week. Of course, all of our newsletter can also be found on our website at: federal-alert.com. We have had our technicians put all of our groups in groups of ten. As such, we have about 5,000 groups of 10, whereas before we had about 50 groups of 1000. Therefore, it will take us considerable more time to distribute the newsletter and we may have to eventually charge a subscription fee. We thank all of the people who are posting the newsletter in the law libraries at the institutions. Anyone else who is interested please let us know.

For the last 30 years, we have been very successful 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 you to gain relief.

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

We are attempting to keep weekly service. However, the newsletter may arrive later because of number of emails that must be sent out now. We thank all of the volunteers who have committed to posting the newsletter in the law libraries. Anyone who works in the law library or has access to post the newsletter, we welcome your help.

Beginning January 1, 2025, we will start our own paid newsletter subscription service. Inmates who wish to continuously receive weekly ALERT Update are required to pay a $24.99 subscription fee to cover a year's subscription for one (1) inmate/email. This small amount will not only cover our costs, but will allow us to expand our coverage. Should you be interested, your outside contact may call us direct at (832) 346-0220 or you may email us at Alertupdate2020@gmail.com for details.

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.