As of August 11, 2021, 570 people had been arrested in connection with the January 6 insurrectionist takeover and plundering of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. Thirty-six of the defendants have pled guilty after reaching “plea deals” with…
Category: federal Sentencing
2020
Category: Corruption | Federal Criminal Law | federal Sentencing
The term “in the interests of justice” is difficult to define precisely. Prosecutors, attorneys, and judges all have a different perspective of what serves the interests of justice.
On May 7, 2020, U.S. Attorney General William Barr invoked the “interests…
2020
Category: Federal Criminal Law | federal Sentencing
Former New York City financier Bernie Madoff is serving a 150-year term in the federal prison system following guilty pleas to multiple charges involving a $20 billion Ponzi scheme that bilked a wide range of celebrities, charities, financial funds, friends…
2020
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | federal Sentencing
In August 2017, Willie Nash was arrested on misdemeanor charges and placed in the Newton County Jail in Decatur, Mississippi. Nash was in possession of a cellphone at the time of his arrest. During the booking process, jailers either didn’t…
2018
Category: Drug Distribution | Drug Manufacturing | Drug Trafficking | federal Sentencing
The federal sentencing scheme is fundamentally unfair. The unfairness is rooted in the fixed mandatory minimums required by law. While the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act was intended to apply mandatory minimum sentences to “major” or “serious” drug traffickers, a 2017…
2018
Category: federal Sentencing | Illegal Pornography
Child pornography evokes intense feelings of contempt and bias against those whom such charges are leveled.
Illustrative of this contempt is the 50-year prison term imposed on a Rockwall, Texas man by U.S. District Court Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater,…
2018
Category: Drug Trafficking | federal Sentencing
Sentencing in federal drug cases can sometimes pose difficult challenges for the judges imposing sentence. This was illustrated in a December 12, 2017 decision, United States v. Collins, by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
There was nothing especially…
2017
Category: Appeals | federal Sentencing
A federal district court judge enjoys broad discretion in determining the criminal sentence to be imposed following conviction. This judicial discretion, however, is limited by the requirement that a judge consider the sentencing factors spelled out in 18 U.S.C. §…
2017
Category: Drug Trafficking | federal Sentencing
Federal judges retire, not as frequently as other government and private sector employees but eventually they do leave the bench, one way or the other. The ABA Journal reports that federal judges, like many other retirees, retire because they can…
2016
Category: Federal Criminal Law | federal Sentencing
Attorneys who regularly represent clients in federal court understand one disturbing trend—U.S. attorneys are doggedly trying to force criminal trials to a point of extinction. It can be said that many criminal defendants are, in fact, guilty and their admissions…