In a highly unusual set of circumstances, in United States v. Stillwell, et al., CA2 remanded for further inquiry defendants’ claims that the DOJ had withheld Brady material under grant of an ex parte protective order. Because that evidence remains sealed to the...
The Circuit released no precedential opinions in criminal cases this past week, but its decision in Minaya, presents an interesting snapshot of where the law stands on 924(c) predicate offenses in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v....
A lengthy but interesting decision in Gatto this week, in which, over a dissent from Judge Lynch, CA2 affirmed the wire-fraud convictions of defendants who had been involved in payments to college athletes’ families to induce those athletes to enroll at universities...
Despite the wild events in the Capitol this week, the machinery of the Federal and State appellate courts continued on. The Second Circuit’s sentencing remand in Brogdon for the district court’s failure to consider, or at least articulate how it had considered,...
In this last week of the year, the Circuit released only a single opinion in a criminal case, United States v. Ho, which dealt with complicated Foreign Corrupt Practices Act questions. In the state courts, AD2’s decision in Harris is worth a read. There, AD2 took the...
Another quiet holiday week in the Circuit. But New York’s appellate divisions were relatively busy, with reversals in the Second, Third, and Fourth Departments. The Second Department’s decision in Antoine is a particularly interesting one, where the trial court...
A quiet pre-holiday week in the Federal and State appellate courts. While CA2 released a number of summary orders, there was no relief for defendants, with the exception of a stricken supervised-release condition in Olmeda. In the NY courts, the only decisions of note...
In a relatively quiet week, CA2’s decision in Gadsden is a reminder that the Federal judiciary continues to approve absurdly long sentences for drug offenses, notwithstanding repeated reforms with the stated purpose of reducing them. In the state courts, AD2 reversed...
While it was a quiet week in the Circuit, there were significant and interesting decisions from three of NY’s appellate divisions. AD1’s decision in Feliciano, AD2’s decision in Hollmond, and AD3’s decision in Holtslander are all worth a read. Second Circuit In United...
This week, in Portillo, CA2 expressed its frustration with the now more than thirty-year-old decision to eliminate parole. But CA2 was not frustrated enough by the consequence of parole elimination to find a 55-year sentence imposed upon a 15-year-old, substantively...
