Federal Defenders of New York Second Circuit Blog

Yuanchung Lee

First Amendment Does Not Bar Sentencing Court from Considering Defendant’s Writings to Rebut His Claims about His Character and Chance of Recidivism

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United States v. Kane, Docket No. 05-2714-cr (2d Cir. June 19, 2006) (Meskill, Straub, Katzmann) (per curiam): This opinion primarily holds that while a sentencing court may not rely on a defendant’s abstract beliefs (or writings) for the purpose of demonstrating that those beliefs / writings (and by extension the defendant) are “morally reprehensible” (and … Read more

Have the Mandatory Guidelines Been Reenacted?

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United States v. Rattoballi, Docket No. 05-1562-cr (2d Cir. June 15, 2006) (Walker, Winter, Jacobs): Someone please wake us up: We read this opinion and had a nightmare that we lived either in another Circuit or in an alternate universe in which Booker had never happened. In an extraordinary act of law-making that flouts Booker … Read more

Corrections Department May Not Unilaterally Add Term of Supervision to Sentence, even if Such Term Is Mandated under Law

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Earley v. Murray, Docket No. 04-4098-pr (2d Cir. June 9, 2006) (Walker, Leval, Sotomayor): This seems an easy case, though the learned district judge somehow got it wrong. The Circuit (by the Chief, no less) reverses the district court and grants the writ to the habeas petitioner, concluding that state courts acted contrary to clearly … Read more

Is the Circuit’s Website Not-So-Appealing?

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Howard Bashman (of the must-read How Appealing blog) wrote this critique of the Second Circuit’s website in a recent article for law.com ranking the websites of the various federal Circuits: “My final bit of criticism is reserved for the New York City-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which allows visitors to access newly issued … Read more

Yet Another Misreading of Apprendi and Ring and Their Application to New York’s Persistent Felon Statute

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Brown v. Miller, Docket No. 05-5014-pr (2d Cir. June 7, 2006) (Cabranes, Sotomayor, Raggi): In this disappointing opinion, the Circuit relies on the same ad hoc reasoning it first used in Brown v. Greiner, 409 F.3d 523 (2d Cir. 2005) (click here for our discussion), to reject the habeas petitioner’s claim that his sentence, imposed … Read more

We Win!

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Zedner v. United States, Supreme Court Docket No. 05-5992 (June 5, 2006): A big Congratulations to Ed Zas of this Office, as well as to Barry Leiwant and Sean Hecker, for winning the long and hard-fought appeal in Zedner. In a 9-0 decision by Justice Alito reversing the Second Circuit (click here for our critique … Read more

Jury Must Be Unanimous that RICO Predicate Was Not Proved to Yield an Acquittal; Lack of Unanimity Results in Hung Jury

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United States v. John A. Gotti, Docket No. 05-6872-cr (Walker, Leval, Sotomayor): This is the opinion the Court promised in February when it rejected Gotti, Jr.’s interlocutory appeal. Gotti claimed that his retrial on two RICO counts was barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause because the jury at his first trial could not unanimously agree … Read more

Ignore If You Have Something Better to Do

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United States v. Hilario, Docket No. 05-3972-cr (2d Cir. May 24, 2006) (Sotomayor, Wesley, Hall) (per curiam): This Blog is puzzled once more by the Court’s decision to issue a published decision rather than a summary order in this case (while giving seemingly more deserving appeals the ol’ back-of-the-hand summary order treatment). Here, the Court … Read more

Sentence Vacated Where Record Suggests that District Court May Not Have “Considered” the Section 3553(a) Factors

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United States v. Toohey, Docket No. 05-4688-cr (2d Cir. May 17, 2006) (Winter, Cabranes, Raggi): In light of the Circuit’s extremely lax standard for determining whether a sentencing court has fulfilled its obligation to “consider” the Section 3553(a) factors in imposing sentence as required by Booker, see, e.g., United States v. Fernandez, 443 F.3d 19, … Read more