Federal Defenders of New York Second Circuit Blog

Peggy Cross-Goldenberg

Sessions Announces “Renewed Commitment to Criminal Immigration Enforcement” and the End of the National Commission on Forensic Science

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued this  statement regarding a “Renewed Commitment to Criminal Immigration Enforcement” yesterday.  It’s unclear how much it will change enforcement priorities in the ED and SDNY, but it does encourage the piling on of additional charges, such as aggravated identity theft and document fraud, in immigration cases.  If you get assigned to … Read more

Sessions Establishes Task Force on “Crime Reduction and Public Safety”

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Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued another memo to US Attorneys this week.  You can access the memo here. In it, he establishes a “Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety” to identify ways federal prosecutors “can more effectively combat illegal immigration and violent crime, such as gun crime, drug trafficking, and gang violence.”  The … Read more

Unanimous Supreme Court: District Court Can Consider Length of Consecutive Sentence in Imposing Sentence on the Underlying Offense

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Today in Dean v. United States, the Supreme Court unanimously held that a district court may consider the consecutive mandatory sentence required under 18 U.S.C. 924(c) when imposing the sentence to be served on the underlying offense.  You can access the opinion here.  The length of the mandatory consecutive sentence bears on the factors to … Read more

Racial Discrimination in Stash House Sting Cases

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Earlier this week, the Chicago Tribune ran a piece on the ND IL litigation challenging the disparate racial impact in stash house sting cases.  We blogged here about the report by Columbia Professor Jeffrey Fagan.  You can access Professor Fagan’s report, and other filings in the litigation, here. If you have a case involving a stash … Read more

Challenging Government Hacking

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The ACLU has come out with a new report outlining legal arguments and strategies for defense attorneys seeking to challenge evidence seized by government-installed computer malware.  The government has increasingly used controversial and constitutionally-questionable hacking to obtain evidence and the report sets out Fourth Amendments challenging this practice. You can access the report here.  

An Honest Assessment of Preet Bharara’s Record

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David Patton, the Executive Director and Attorney-in-Chief at the Federal Defenders of New York, published an opinion piece in yesterday’s New York Daily News.  Patton points out that while much of the press following Bharara’s firing focused on his reputation as the “sheriff of Wall Street” or the drainer of the Albany swamp, these high-profile cases do … Read more

Supreme Court decides Beckles

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This morning, the Supreme Court decided Beckles v. United States.  You can read the opinion here. The Court held unanimously that the Sentencing Guidelines are not subject to void-for-vagueness challenges. We will update with a more detailed analysis soon.  

Proposed Amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines

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The United States Sentencing Commission has proposed several amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines. Because the Guidelines’ worth stems from their basis in the Commission’s expertise, the reasoning for any changes proposed by the Commission can be useful in persuading a sentencing court to either follow the proposed amendment or decline to follow the current guideline. … Read more