Seventh Circuit Affirms Vacatur of Death Sentence Based on Newly Discovered Evidence of Defendant’s Intellectual Disability by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana’s vacatur of Bruce Carneil Webster’s death sentence based …

Fifth Circuit: Consecutive Sentence for FTA Must Be Part of ‘Total Punishment,’ Not Merely a Stacked Sentence by by Dale Chappell The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that a mandatory consecutive sentence for a failure to appear (“FTA”) conviction must be calculated as part of the …

Fourth Circuit: Standalone Rehaif Error Requires Automatic Vacatur of Guilty Plea by David Reutter by David M. Reutter The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that the district court’s failure to give a defendant notice that he belonged to a class of persons prohibited from possessing a …