Federal Defenders of New York Second Circuit Blog

Eighth Amendment

Convictions for “actual and attempted Hobbs Act robbery” are crimes of violence under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). And the imposition of 6 consecutive mandatory minimum prison sentences, totaling 115 years’ (based on the “stacking” of five § 924(c) convictions, running consecutively to a 10-year minimum drug sentence), doesn’t violate the Eighth Amendment. United States v.  Waite, No. 18-2651, __F.4th__, 2021 WL 3870712 (2d Cir. Aug. 31, 2021) (C.J.J. Cabranes, Raggi, Sullivan).

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Waite was originally sentenced in 2011, principally to 125 years’ imprisonment based on five 924(c) counts and a drug conspiracy count. The Circuit vacated his original sentence (in 2016) because of an issue with the drug sentence. At the resentencing in March 2018, the district court subtracted 10 years from the original (20-year) drug sentence, … Read more

Mandatory Life Sentences for Murders Committed by 18-Year-Olds and Over Do Not Violate the Eighth Amendment

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In Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S. 460, 465 (2012), the Supreme Court held “that mandatory life imprisonment without parole for those under the age of 18 at the time of their crimes violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments.” Today, the Second Circuit declined to extend Miller to cover three defendants who … Read more

Miller Round-Up

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The Second Circuit issued no criminal opinions or notable summary orders this week. This silence provides the occasion to flag two recent decisions outside the Circuit about the scope of Miller v. Alabama (2012) (requiring individualized sentencing consideration before sentencing a juvenile offender to life without parole, and holding that this punishment may be imposed only … Read more

EDNY: Dearie Reduces JLWOP Sentence to 35 Years

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In 1989, when he was 16 years old, Alex Wong, a teen runaway who had been recruited by a violent street gang, committed a murder during an extortion gone awry.  He was convicted of RICO conspiracy and sentenced to life under the mandatory Guidelines. On Friday, in light of the Supreme Court’s decisions in Miller … Read more

Cashed and Burned

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United States v. Varrone, No. 07-4533-cr (2d Cir. January 30, 2009) (Calabresi, Sotomayor, Parker, CJJ) Joseph A. Castello ran a check cashing business. He cashed more than $200 million in checks that exceeded $10,000 – charging a four percent check-cashing fee – for which he was obligated to file currency transaction reports (CTR’s). He did … Read more