U.S. v. Ductan (Lawyers Weekly No. 15-01-0858, 32 pp.) (Per Curiam) No. 14-4220, Sept. 2, 2015; UDC at Charlotte, N.C. (Conrad, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: A trial court violated a drug defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel when it found ...

Tagged with: Criminal Forfeiture of Counsel

State v. Jones Where defendant was convicted of a criminal offense while on probation, and where defendant admitted to the willfulness of this probation violation, under the Justice Reinvestment Act, the trial court was authorized to revoke defendant’s probation.

Tagged with: Criminal

U.S. v. Whitfield The 4th Circuit vacates a conviction and mandatory life sentence for a codefendant in a botched bank robbery and mid-escape home intrusion, which ended in the death of an elderly woman who suffered a heart attack; the district court erred in instructing the jury on an offense not charged in the indictment.

Tagged with: Criminal jury instruction

U.S. v. Wynn An engineer who mailed a client county a valid permit that had been cut off an old set of plans and attached to a new plan for a county airport runway extension committed mail and wire fraud, and the 4th Circuit rejects his appellate challenges to jury instructions and the restitution calculation of $118,000.

Tagged with: Criminal

U.S. v. Foster The 4th Circuit denies rehearing en banc in this case in which the panel majority held that a defendant’s prior convictions for breaking and entering “Corner Market” and the “Sunrise-Sunset Restaurant” under Virginia’s non-generic burglary statute qualify as violent felonies under the Armed Career Criminal Act, and remanded for resentencing.

Tagged with: ACCA Criminal sentencing

U.S. v. Doswell A district court that admitted and relied on hearsay evidence of defendant’s state-court heroin charge, nolle prossed after the chemist who authored the crime lab report failed to appear in state court, violated Rule 32.1, and the 4th Circuit vacates the district court order revoking defendant’s supervised release for an earlier robbery conviction.

Tagged with: Criminal evidence Hearsay

U.S. v. Thornsbury A convicted felon pleading guilty to possession of ammunition, who waived his right to appeal “any sentence,” cannot seek to have his sentence on the firearm charge reduced in light of his assistance to the government in prosecuting an unrelated case, and the 4th Circuit dismisses this appeal of the district court’s denial of the government’s motion for a sentence reduction pursuant to Fed. Rule Crim. P. 35(b).

Tagged with: appeals Criminal Guilty Plea sentencing waiver

U.S. v. Holmes A defendant convicted of aggravated sexual abuse of a child for twice forcing his stepdaughter, under age 9, to perform oral sex on him during a time defendant was stationed in Japan with the Air Force, has his convictions affirmed by the 4th Circuit despite his challenge to venue and claim that his statements to investigators should have been excluded.

Tagged with: Criminal venue

U.S. v. Hudson A defendant’s “fleeing or eluding” conviction under Florida law is a violent felony that allows defendant to be sentenced under the Armed Career Criminal Act on a weapon possession charge, the 4th Circuit says.

Tagged with: ACCA Criminal sentencing

U.S. v. King The 4th Circuit upholds a 96-month sentence on defendant’s conviction of possession of a firearm as a convicted felon; the sentencing court did not err in enhancing defendant’s sentence for his prior “crime of violence” for pointing and presenting a firearm, and in treating his sentence after an Alford plea to involuntary manslaughter as a “prior sentence” under federal sentencing guidelines.

Tagged with: Criminal sentencing