Criminal Law

Court affirms denial of sentence reduction for eligible crack defendant
Continuing its long string of affirmances in crack resentencing cases, the Third Circuit affirmed the denial of sentence reduction for an eligible defendant in United States v. Styer, 08-2951 (3d Cir...

Crack Amendment Does Not Apply to Supervised Release Violations
United States v. Fontenot, ___ F.3d ___ , No. 08-1363 (10th Cir 2009) In another case of the (non-applicable) retroactive amendment reducing the crack guidelines by two levels, the 10th decides that the amendment does not apply to sentences upon revocation of supervised release...

District Court Can Consider Prior Guideline Reductions at 3582(c)(2) Resentencing
United States v. D.C., ___ F.3d ___, 2008 WL 5340429 (10th Cir. 2008)Great argument in retroactive crack reduction case where Defendant had previously received 5K1.1 and Sec. 3553(e) reductions, rejected by the COA...

No Crack Reduction for Career Offenders
US v. Olden, No. 08-5060, 10/15/08 - Another crack sentence reduction motion denied, and affirmed, because the defendant was sentenced as a career offender.

Reduced Crack Guidelines Do Not Apply to Defendants Sentenced as Career Offenders
United States v. Anderson, No. 08-41314 (5th Cir. Dec. 21, 2009) (per curiam)Are defendants who were convicted of crack offenses and sentenced as career offenders eligible for a sentence reduction under 18 U...

Bring us your tired, your poor, your crack defendants eligible for retroactive sentencing relief
Since the amendment lowering sentences for crack offenses has been made retroactive, the lot of us have been running around with our heads cut off trying to figure out what to do. The primary challenges are organizational, which is not my or Melody's strong suit...

Parody is a Protected Form of Speech
Targets of criticism seek to shut down Internet sites that poke fun

Wrongful Death
alleging death was caused by the conduct of negligent defendant.

Phone Bill Reduction
Qwest agrees to $16 million settlement in overcharging lawsuit.

Bush Administration
class action settlement ensures Medicaid beneficiaries can continue to purchase prescription drugs at minimum cost when they become eligible for Medicare.