U. S. Supreme Court Happenings and Favorable Federal Circuit Opinions for the Week of April 1-5, 2024--

U. S. Supreme Court Happenings– Week ending April 5, 2024 –

In April of 2024, the Justices will hold conferences on April 12, 19 and 25, 2024. Oral argument is scheduled for April 15-17 and April 22-25, 2024.

Favorable Federal Circuit Opinions for the Week of April 1-5, 2024 –

3rd Circuit

United States v. Barksdale, (No. 22-2284)(3rd Cir. April 4, 2024)– Criminal defendants have a right to testify in their own defense. At a hearing to revoke his supervised release, Barksdale repeatedly tried to exercise that right. But he never got to do so. On the record before the Court, the district court should have heeded Barksdale’s pleas to testify. And the government did not prove that this mistake was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. But neither was it grave enough to require a new judge on remand. So, the Court remanded to the same judge for a new revocation hearing to fix this mistake.

8th Circuit

United States v. Arrington, (No: 23-2173) (8th Cir. April 4, 2024)– The district court did not err when it placed the burden on defendant to prove any offset to the amount of restitution. However, because evidence in the record shows that defendant presented sufficient evidence to establish that he sold shares in the victim company, valued at $50,000, back to his co-owner for one dollar, as partial payment toward the loss amount, the district court clearly erred when it declined to offset the amount of restitution by the value of the shares returned. The Court vacated the restitution award and remanded to the district court with directions to amend its judgment to reflect the amount of the offset.

9th Circuit

United States v. Tat, (No. 22-50240)(9th Cir. April 4, 2024)– In a case stemming from Vivian Tat’s involvement in a money-laundering scheme, the panel vacated the sentence imposed at resentencing and remanded for resentencing. The panel held that the district court erred in applying an organizer/leader enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1 for two reasons: (1) contrary to the district court’s suggestion, Tat’s status as a mere member of the criminal enterprise—even if she was an essential member—does not bear on whether she was an organizer, leader, manager, or supervisor of the criminal activity; and (2) the criminal conduct—a scheme to launder roughly $25,000 via a single transaction involving four participants and one victim—was not “otherwise extensive.”

United States v. Hansen, (No. 17-10548)(9th Cir. April 3, 2024)– On remand from the Supreme Court, the panel vacated Helaman Hansen’s convictions on two counts of encouraging or inducing an alien to come to, enter, or reside unlawfully in the United States for private financial gain, in violation of 8 U.S.C. §§ 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv) and 1324(a)(1)(B)(i); and remanded to the district court for further proceedings. The panel held that the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Hansen, 599 U.S. 762 (2023), compels the insertion of a specific intent mens rea element into the jury instructions for charges under § 1324(a)(1)(A)(iv). Because the jury instructions for the two counts omitted this element, the instructions were erroneous. Given conflicting testimony at trial, and the centrality of a mens rea requirement to a criminal conviction, the panel concluded that the error was not harmless.

Latest Bureau of Prison’s Statistics (From BOP Website):

Fair Sentencing/Retroactive Sentence Reductions 4,141 Orders Granted to date.
Elderly Offender Home Confinement 1,247. Approved to date.
First Step Act Releases 31,926 granted to date.
Compassionate Releases/Reduction in Sentences 4,701 granted to date.
Population in RRC’s 8,256.
Population in Home Confinement 4,970.

COMMENT:

We are still receiving a great amount of people wanting to find out if they qualify for any of the new USSG Amendments such 814 and 821. Our FREE LOOK program on those kinds of Amendments ended Monday, April 1, 2024. We had hundreds of inquiries, but not many people actually qualified. Instead, we suggest that you opt for a Written Case Evaluation (“WCE”) as soon as possible to determine all remedies available to you to you to gain relief.

For the last 30 years, we have been very successful. We can help on direct appeals, 2255 motions, 2241 Petitions, First Step Act and Compassionate Release Motions, Earned Time Credits, DC Superior Court Petitions, State Post Conviction, Clemencies and Pardons and other specialized motions to mention a few avenues for relief we cover. The WCE is an excellent low cost tool to see what can be done for you at any stage of the proceedings. It is thorough and detailed from day one of your case to present with our recommendations of any remedies available to gain relief.

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