On April 8, 2016, the D.C. Court of Appeals in United States v. Scurry issued a significant clarification of wiretaps obtained by federal law enforcement agencies under Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968…
Author: John Floyd
2016
Category: Corporate Fraud | Federal Criminal Law
Historically, federal prosecutors have three ways to handle criminal cases: decline to prosecute, secure a plea agreement, or try the case before a judge or jury.
Deferred Prosecutions
The Speedy Trial Act of 1974, which is found in…
2016
Category: Federal Criminal Law | Healthcare Fraud
The Sixth Amendment right to counsel in this country is constitutionally sacrosanct.
It has long been popularly believed that every person in America has an undeniable right to retain the counsel of their choice; that the Government does not…
2016
Category: Appeals | Federal Criminal Law | Sex Crimes
For many sex offenders, the prospect of registration for life is actually worse than imprisonment. Many offenders complain they can never pay their debt to society or be free of their past crimes, no matter how successful their rehabilitation. May…
2016
Category: Criminal Law | Prosecutorial Misconduct
Keeping African Americans off juries in criminal case is not a new phenomenon. In fact, currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court is the case of Timothy Foster—a teenager convicted in a 1987 capital trial in Rome, Georgia during which…
2016
Category: Appeals | Criminal Law | Guns
A stun gun is more commonly known as a Taser. It is a device or weapon from which an electrical current may be fired through wires with the ability to incapacitate, injured or even kill someone.
In 2014, the…
2016
Category: Drug Crime | Drug Trafficking | Federal Criminal Law
U.S. Sentencing Guideline § 2D1.1(a)(2) applies a base “base offense level” of 38 in certain drug cases when “the offense of conviction establishes that death or serious bodily injury resulted from the use of the substance …”
On March…
2016
Category: Drug Crime | Federal Criminal Law | Methamphetamines
Ralph Gene Carloss lived in Tahlequah, Oklahoma—a city in Cherokee County located at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. He is an ex-felon who lived in a single-family dwelling located in what was described as a “pretty old area” in…
2016
Category: Appeals | Federal Criminal Law | Internet Sex Crimes
There is no doubt that Melvin Hubert Holmes took videos of his teenage stepdaughter in various stages of undress without her knowledge. The images were captured in the victim’s bathroom and bedroom. The images depicted the victim in normal, though…
2016
Category: Appeals | Drug Crime
Known as the “Gateway to North Louisiana,” the town of Haynesville is located in the northern part of Claiborne Parish just south of the Arkansas state line. It is best known for its high school football team, the Golden Tornadoes,…