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U.S. Sentencing Commission Adopts 2025 Amendments to Resolve Circuit Conflicts by David Kim On April 30, 2025, the United States Sentencing Commission submitted amendments to the federal sentencing guidelines to Congress, set to take effect on November 1, 2025, absent congressional action. These amendments address two significant circuit court conflicts …
Article • August 1, 2025 • from CLN August, 2025
Summary of the 2025 Drug Offenses Amendment by the U.S. Sentencing Commission by David Kim On April 30, 2025, the United States Sentencing Commission (“USSC”), an independent agency within the judicial branch established under the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, promulgated a multi-part amendment to the federal sentencing guidelines addressing …
Article • August 1, 2025 • from CLN August, 2025
Nebraska Supreme Court Clarifies Procedure for Crediting Jail Time to Multiple Contemporaneously-Imposed Sentences by Matthew Clarke In a case of first impression, the Supreme Court of Nebraska clarified the procedure to be used when crediting time spent in pretrial incarceration against multiple contemporaneously-imposed sentences pursuant to Neb. Rev. Stat. § 83-1.106, …
SCOTUS Announces Sentence ‘Has Not Been Imposed’ for Purposes of First Step Act Retroactivity Upon Resentencing When § 924(c) Offender Sentenced Prior to Act’s Enactment but Sentence Subsequently Vacated by Richard Resch The Supreme Court of the United States held that when an offender convicted under § 924(c) had been sentenced …
Article • August 1, 2025 • from CLN August, 2025
Filed under: Habeas Corpus, AEDPA
Fifth Circuit Announces When Initial § 2255 Petition Not Decided on Merits and Appeals Court Later Recalls Mandate Dismissing Direct Appeal and Affirms Conviction, Subsequent § 2255 Petition Not ‘Second or Successive’ Under AEDPA by Douglas Ankney In a case of first impression, the United States Court of Appeals for …
Article • July 1, 2025 • from CLN July, 2025
Fourth Circuit Announces Counterman v. Colorado Is New Rule of Constitutional Law That Applies Retroactively to Cases on Collateral Review and Grants Authorization to File Successive § 2255 Motion by Douglas Ankney The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit granted Scott Lewis Rendelman’s motion for authorization to …
Article • July 1, 2025 • from CLN July, 2025
Fourth Circuit: A Finding of Offering Money to Minor for Videos Depicting Specific Conduct Without Establishing Order of Events Insufficient to Establish Offer ‘Caused’ Minor to Produce Explicit Material Within Meaning of Guidelines § 2G2.2(c)(1) Cros by Sagi Schwartzberg The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit vacated …
Article • June 1, 2025 • from CLN June, 2025
Arguing Successful Federal Habeas Corpus Claims by Dale Chappell This column is a follow-up to my original column published in the March 2021 issue of Criminal Legal News titled “Raising Successful Federal Habeas Corpus Claims.” In that first piece, I explained how to identify valid claims for federal habeas relief, …
Article • May 15, 2025 • from CLN June, 2025
First Circuit Announces What Constitutes ‘Otherwise Using’ a Dangerous Weapon for Purposes of the Four-Level Enhancement Under Guidelines § 2B3.1(a) by Sagi Schwartzberg The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that the U.S. District Court for the District of Puerto Rico improperly applied the four-level sentencing …
Fourth Circuit: Procedurally Unreasonable Sentence Where District Court Failed to Address Defendant’s Non-Frivolous Downward Variance Argument Based on Sentencing Disparity Due to Which State’s Statute Prior Conviction Based Upon by Anthony Accurso The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that the U.S. District Court for the …
Article • May 15, 2025 • from CLN June, 2025
SCOTUS Announces Only ‘False’ Statements Made to FDIC Are Criminalized Under 18 U.S.C. § 1014, Not Statements That Are ‘Misleading’ but True by Richard Resch Resolving a split between the United States Courts of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and Seventh Circuit, the Supreme Court of the United States held …
Article • May 15, 2025 • from CLN June, 2025
Fourth Circuit: District Court Failed to Provide Sufficient Explanation for Sentence Imposed and Did Not Address Defendant’s Arguments for Downward Variant Sentence by David Reutter The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina committed procedural error …
Article • April 15, 2025 • from CLN May, 2025
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt? Fingerprint Evidence’s Troubling Flaws by Douglas Ankney by Douglas Ankney In March 2004, four commuter trains in Madrid, Spain, were bombed. Spain’s National Police recovered a blue plastic bag filled with detonators and traces of explosives. Forensic experts used the standard practice of fumigating the bag …
Article • April 15, 2025 • from CLN May, 2025
Nearly 150 Exonerations in 2024 Highlight Persistent Flaws in U.S. Criminal Justice System by David Kim by David Kim In 2024, 147 prisoners were exonerated for crimes they did not commit, an alarming number that underscores both the resilience of those wrongfully convicted and the systemic failures that led to …
Article • April 15, 2025 • from CLN May, 2025
Connecticut Compensates Exonerated Prisoners, Reforms Policing by Jo Ellen Nott by Jo Ellen Nott Connecticut is confronting its history of wrongful convictions by compensating victims and reforming police procedures. The state has moved to award $37.6 million to eight wrongfully convicted men who collectively spent 151 years behind bars. The …
Article • April 15, 2025 • from CLN May, 2025
Ninth Circuit Grants Stay and Abeyance of Federal Habeas Petition to Allow Petitioner to Exhaust State Remedies by Sagi Schwartzberg by Sagi Schwartzberg The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that Eugene Allen Doerr satisfied the criteria set forth in Rhines v. Weber, 544 U.S. 269 …
Arkansas Supreme Court Rules § 16-93-609(b)(2)(B), Relating to Parole Eligibility for Residential Burglary Conviction, Applies Retroactively to Defendant by Sagi Schwartzberg by Sagi Schwartzberg The Supreme Court of Arkansas, in two companion cases, held that there was no designation in Appellant’s sentencing order to § 16-93-609 of the Arkansas Code Annotated …
Article • March 15, 2025 • from CLN April, 2025
Filed under: Pardons/Clemency
Trump Appoints ‘Pardon Czar’ at Black History Month Event by James Mills by James Mills President Donald J. Trump recently announced the appointment of Alice Johnson, a formerly incarcerated woman whose sentence he had commuted, as his senior adviser on pardons, a role he dubbed “pardon czar.” The announcement was …
Article • March 15, 2025 • from CLN April, 2025
Bite Marks and Broken Justice: A Louisiana Man’s Life and Death Struggle Against Junk Science by David Kim by David Kim In a Louisiana courtroom last September, attorney Scott Greene stood before those in attendance and issued a stark warning: The video they were about to see would unsettle them. …
Article • March 15, 2025 • from CLN April, 2025
Nebraska Supreme Court Announces ‘Working Days’ for Purposes of ‘Temporary Domicile’ SORA Reporting Requirement Means Weekdays, Excluding Legal Holidays, and Reverses Conviction for Failure to Register by Sagi Schwartzberg by Sagi Schwartzberg The Supreme Court of Nebraska interpreted the definition of “working days” in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 29-4001.01(6) of the …
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