HELPFUL CASES APRIL 2009

    United States Supreme Court
    1st Circuit Court of Appeals [None this update]
    2nd Circuit Court of Appeals 
    3rd Circuit Court of Appeals 
    4th Circuit Court of Appeals 
    5th Circuit Court of Appeals 
    6th Circuit Court of Appeals [None this update]
    7th Circuit Court of Appeals [None this update]
    8th Circuit Court of Appeals 
    9th Circuit Court of Appeals [None this update]
    10th Circuit Court of Appeals 
    11th Circuit Court of Appeals [None this update]
    D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals [None this update]
    Supreme Court of Delaware [None this update]
    Supreme Court of Florida [None this update]
    New York Court of Appeals [None this update]
    Illinois Supreme Court [None this update]
    Texas Criminal Court of Appeals 

Federal Courts (April 1-30, 2009)

Selected Decisions:

Corley v. U.S. (4/6/2009, No. 07-10441) ____ US ____ [173 LEd 2d 443; 129 SCt 1558]: Defendant's bank robbery conviction is vacated, where the District Court erred by denying Defendant's motion to suppress his confession under McNabb v. US (1943) 318 US 332, and Mallory v. US (1957) 354 US 449, based on the government's delay in bringing him before a judge, where 18 USC 3501 modified McNabb-Mallory but did not supplant it.

U.S. v. Hertular (4/6/2009, 2nd Cir. No. 07-1453) 562 F3d 433: Evidence was insufficient to support defendant's conviction for forcibly impeding or intimidating a federal officer under 18 USC 111(a)(1) as the agents were not being threatened with immediate harm.

U.S. v. Polouizzi (4/24/2009, 2nd Cir. No. 08-1830-cr) 564 F3d 142: (1) Multiplicity: Court erred by entering multiple convictions instead of a single conviction for possession of a single collection of child pornography, and the error affected defendant's substantial rights; (2) Instruction On Minimum Sentence: No Sixth Amendment right to an instruction on the applicable mandatory minimum sentence, although the court does have the discretion to do so in some circumstances.

U.S. v. Olhovsky (4/16/2009, 3rd Cir. No. 07-1642) 562 F3d 530: Unreasonable Sentence: Defendant's sentence was substantively unreasonable, and the sentencing court erred as a matter of law in refusing to allow his treating psychologist to testify at the sentencing hearing.

Hummel v. Rosemeyer (4/29/2009, 3rd Cir. No. 06-2711) 564 F3d 290: IAC: Failure To Explore Competence Of Client: District court denial of plaintiff's request for a writ of habeas corpus is reversed where: 1) plaintiff received ineffective assistance of counsel for counsel's failure to deal appropriately with the likelihood that plaintiff was incompetent to stand trial; and 2) there was a reasonable probability that plaintiff was prejudiced by the ineffectiveness.

U.S. v. Madrigal-Valdez (4/1/2009, 4th Cir. No. 07-4681) 561 F3d 370: Unlawful Entry Into A Military Base (18 USC 1382): Insufficient that defendant had notice of the requirements for entry before he drove onto the military base access road.

U.S. v. Ruston (4/15/2009, 5th Cir. No. 07-10433) 565 F3d 892: Faretta: Defendant's erratic behavior put judge on notice of need for hearing on defendant’s competency to proceed pro se.

U.S. v. Theagene (4/15/2009, 5th Cir. No. 08-50160) 565 F3d 911: Entrapment Instruction: Evidence that defendant lacked predisposition to bribe the official at issue and that the government induced him to do so required judge to give requested instruction on entrapment.

Richards v. Quarterman (4/27/2009, 5th Cir. No. 08-10934) 566 F3d 553: IAC: Failure to present exculpatory evidence justified finding that counsel was ineffective.

U.S. v. Parks (4/7/2009, 8th Cir. No. 06-4051) 561 F3d 795: Escape vs. Failure To Return: Record was not sufficiently developed to determine whether defendant's prior conviction for his walkway escape under Mo. Rev. Stat. sec. 575.210 constituted a career-offender-qualifying escape from custody or a non-qualifying failure to return or report to custody, for purposes of the career offender provisions.

U.S. v. Garcia (4/15/2009, 8th Cir. No. 08-2170) 562 F3d 947: Brady/Giglio: Matter remanded for in camera review of Brady/Giglio claim.

U.S. v. Pereyra-Gabino (4/16/2009, 8th Cir. No. 08-2869) 563 F3d 322: Shielding Illegal Aliens (8 USC1324(a)(1)(A)(iii)): Instructions – Jury instructions erroneously failed to require the jury to find that each individual the defendant shielded from detection was in the U.S. illegally and that defendant knew or was in reckless disregard of the fact but instead permitted the jury to "mix and match" the alleged illegal aliens.

U.S. v. Serafin (4/14/2009, 10th Cir. No. 07-8086) 562 F3d 1105: Possession Of Weapon Is Not "Crime Of Violence" (18 USC 924(c)(1)): Possession of an unregistered short-barreled rifle does not constitute a "crime of violence" because mere possession did not create a substantial risk of harm.

Hammer v. State (4/8/2009, TX No. PD-0786-08) 2009 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 513: Confrontation: Cross-Examination Of Victim – Court abused its discretion by preventing defendant from cross-examining the victim about her alleged prior false rape accusation.

Ex Parte Reedy (4/29/2009, TX No. AP-75,862) 282 SW3d 492: IAC: Waiver: Defendant did not waive his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel.