by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held on September 15, 2020, that when a district court determines that a person is eligible for sentencing relief under the First Step Act, the court must consider all the applicable sentencing factors under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held on September 25, 2020, that the outdated compassionate release guideline under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 1B1.13, Application Note 1(D) (“Application Note 1(D)”), doesn’t control when a compassionate release motion is filed by a federal prisoner, rather ...
by Dale Chappell
Yes, it’s true: Oregon voted to decriminalize personal possession of recreational drugs, including heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and others this past Election Day. It’s an effort to stop “penalizing addiction,” the new law says, and to focus on treatment instead of jail for addicts.
Known on the ballot ...
by Dale Chappell
In this final column based on my book, WinningCites: Attacking the Guilty Plea, we’ll go over how plea waivers and breaches of plea agreements impact challenging a guilty plea, and we’ll also dig into one of the most-asked questions I hear: Can I get more time ...
by Dale Chappell
A powerful new database combines data from multiple sources in order to provide more useful information about federal sentencing.
The ground-breaking service is a first of its kind and has been an eye-opener about what’s really going on in federal sentencing.
This new tool is called JUSTFAIR ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held on August 20, 2020, that appellate counsel’s failure to raise a “clearly foreshadowed” change in decisional law that would’ve led to a likely change in the outcome was ineffective assistance of counsel (“IAC”) sufficient to excuse procedural ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that the use of unconvicted criminal conduct that was too dissimilar to the charged offense to obtain a conviction violates a defendant’s due process rights and granted habeas corpus relief, vacating a murder conviction and death sentence. ...
by Dale Chappell
In a case where a prosecutor pulled statements from a detective during testimony before a jury that tied a defendant to the crime – and without that witness testifying in court himself – the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that this violated the ...
by Dale Chappell
The Supreme Court of Arizona held on September 1, 2020, that a statute increasing a misdemeanor charge to a felony for merely being part of a gang is unconstitutional on its face as a violation of substantive due process, affirming a trial court’s dismissal of the charges. ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held on August 3, 2020, that the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico’s focus on the dangerousness of machine guns and their link to brutal crimes in general are not permissible reasons to impose a ...
