Let it be said that Samuel Volpendesto led an interesting, albeit controversial, life. He was a war hero earning a box full of medals, including a coveted Bronze Star. In 1945, during World War II, he volunteered to swim into…
Author: John Floyd
2014
Josh Rogin is the senior correspondent for national security and politics for The Daily Beast. He recently wrote an “exclusive” article about Hillary Clinton’s role as a defense attorney in a 1975 Arkansas first-degree child rape case involving two perpetrators.…
2014
Category: White Collar Crime
On April 9, 2015, the U.S. Sentencing Commission voted to amend economic crime guidelines and to change the drug quantity table to account for the rescheduling of hydrocodone.
The response from defense lawyers and others concerned with fair and…
2014
Category: Uncategorized
In a 2013 report titled “An Offer You Can’t Refuse,” Human Rights Watch reported that 97 percent of federal drug defendants plead guilty. The alternative, according to the report, is that the defendants will spend an exorbitant amount of time…
2014
Category: Drug Crime | Federal Criminal Law
PRESENCE OF “NARCO SAINT” LEADS TO DRUG CONVICTIONS
At the turn of the 20th century, Jesus Malverde was a Mexican bandit who roamed the hills of the state of Sinaloa, and as legend has it, stole from the rich…
2014
Category: Federal Criminal Law
In a forceful per curiam decision handed down on May 5, 2014, the U.S.
Supreme Court overturned a ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Robert R. Tolan—a budding African-American professional baseball player who…
2014
Category: Federal Criminal Law
In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller held that the Second Amendment codified a “pre-existing” right that allows individuals to keep and bear arms. The court specifically found that the right to self-defense is undeniable…
2014
Category: Federal Criminal Law
Generally the Forth Amendment allows brief investigative stops,Terry stops, only when there exists a particular and objective basis for suspecting criminal activity.
In 1990, in Alabama v. White, the U.S. Supreme Court discussed the weight an “anonymous tip” should…
2014
Category: Federal Criminal Law | Sex Crimes
In recent years people who were victimized as children by child pornography have turned to the Violence Against Women Act of 1994 (“VAWA”), codified in 18 U.S.C. § 2259, to apply for and receive restitution from defendants convicted of possessing…
2014
To be successful at crime often requires good sense and even better luck.
Puerto Rico resident Jose Luis Bobadilla-Pagan (“Bobadilla”) is undeniable evidence of this point. The First Circuit Court of Appeals in a March 28, 2014 decision upholding…