Federal Judiciary

United States v. Phillips, No. 06-0960-cr (2d Cir. Dec. 4, 2007) (found here)

Phillips appealed (among other things) the district court's refusal to include a three-level reduction for his acceptance of responsibility.  The Second Circuit found that the district court had based its decision "on certain statements Phillips made to the probation officer and to the court regarding his motivation for committing the crimes.  The district court found these statements illogical and disingenuous and believed that they demonstrated that Phillips did not clearly accept responsibility for his actions." 

While surely the district court was authorized to deny the three-level reduction, the standard for obtaining the reduction is in practice quite low.  Phillips must have really screwed it up.  It would have been nice to have had the Second Circuit describe his conduct in more detail so that defense counsel could be on notice as to what NOT to have their clients say and do (although it is generally obvious to most defense counsel).