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Williams: Life Sentence Affirmed

By Tim Cone

In U.S. v. Williams, No. 08-10185 (March 31, 2009), the Court affirmed the district court?s re-imposition of a life sentence.In a prior appeal, the Court had vacated the life sentence because the district court failed to give a reason for imposing a life sentence. Upon remand, the district court provided reasons.The Court noted that its limited mandate precluded the district court from re-examining the life sentence based on new considerations. The Court recognized that one exception to the mandate rule involved intervening changes in the law. Here, one prior conviction that qualified Williams as a "career offender" was a Florida state conviction for battery of a law enforcement. The Florida Supreme Court recently held that this offense was not a "forcible felony...continue to full post

Full post as published by Defense Newsletter Blog on April 06, 2009 (boomark / email).