On September 15, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which sits here in Atlanta, Georgia, decided a federal drug and firearm case, U.S. v. Segarra. Drug laws and the gun statute 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) each carry heavy mandatory minimum sentences. The drug minimums are often longer than the minimum…
Last month, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which sits here in Atlanta, Georgia, and hears appeals from both civil and criminal federal cases, decided United States v. Kaley, a case regarding due process requirements for protective orders over property defendants wish to use to hire criminal defense counsel of…
Last week, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decided United States v. McIntosh, a federal criminal double jeopardy case. The Eleventh Circuit is located here in Atlanta and hears appeals in federal cases from Alabama, Florida, and Georgia. The Double Jeopardy Clause has been whittled down, but this case shows…
In this post in May, we discussed Flores-Figueroa v. United States, in which the Supreme Court held that a federal identity theft statute requires the government to prove that a criminal defendant knew that the identification that he or she used actually belonged to another person. That decision overruled a…
One of Justice Sotomayor‘s first decisions on the Supreme Court will be in Maryland v. Shatzer, which is set for argument on October 5, 2009. The Court will decide whether the federal criminal constitutional protections afforded by Edwards v. Arizona in 1981 extend to Shatzer. Edwards prohibits interrogation of a…
Frank DiPascali, Bernie Madoff‘s top financial aide, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to ten criminal counts, including conspiracy, tax evasion, and securities fraud. He was taken into federal custody immediately after the hearing, at which he had waived indictment and admitted to helping Madoff falsify trading records for decades. Although he…
A new federal criminal law directed at online pharmacies went into effect in April. We have represented many targets and potential targets of investigations and prosecutions involving these types of online pharmacies, as well as other drug prosecutions. Recent Internet drug sale laws may encompass more behavior than the primary…
Last Monday, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Weyhrauch v. United States, a federal criminal honest services fraud case. We are in Atlanta, Georgia, which is in the Eleventh Circuit. Because this case may impact Eleventh Circuit law, we will follow this case closely and provide any updates. The question…
A couple of weeks ago, the federal Supreme Court decided a criminal case, Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, holding that the admission of crime lab reports requires the forensic analysts to testify in person. The Georgia Supreme Court adopted the same rule in 1996 for state criminal cases brought here in Georgia…
Last week the Supreme Court decided District Attorney’s Office for the Third Judicial District v. Osborne in favor of the District Attorney’s Office. Although this was technically a civil case, it deals with federal constitutional criminal issues. Mr. Osborne was convicted of kidnapping, assault, and sexual assault in the early…