Recently in Criminal Law Category

Gary Washington participated in a credit card scheme. Along with his cohorts, the group purchased stolen credit card numbers off of the internet and imprinted new cards with those numbers. They then used them or sold them to third parties.

There's not really a dispute as to his guilt - he did plead guilty, after all. What is currently in dispute is the appropriate sentence. USSG §2B1.1(b)(2) provides for the following sentencing enhancements:

Seven experts. Seven opinions that all agree: Warren Lee Hill, Jr. is mentally retarded. Judge Barkett's passionate dissent starts at a point the majority barely reached when they used procedural hurdles to deny Hill's habeas petition -- the fundamental proposition that Hill, per the Constitution, is exempt from execution.

The crux of her argument is this: no statute, even one as strict as the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA), should trump the Constitution. Three classes of individuals are exempt from execution, per the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishments: the insane, the mentally retarded, and juvenile offenders.

While in prison for murdering his girlfriend, Warren Lee Hill ripped the leg off of a sink and beat a fellow inmate to death while other prisoners watched. He was tried and convicted by a jury and sentenced to death. He appealed his sentence through multiple trips to state and federal courts.

No matter your feelings on the death penalty, his impending execution should be worrisome. The unanimous opinion of seven experts is that Hill is mentally retarded*. It is the timing, however, of those opinions that may cost Hill his life. Four diagnosed him as mentally retarded at the time of his trial. Three initially thought he was malingering and reversed their opinions in the last year.

Note to Death Row inmates: nag your attorney incessantly - your life may depend on it.

Robert Melson was convicted of three counts of capital murder in 1996. He burned through his direct appeals by 2000 and SCOTUS denied his petition for a writ of certiorari on March 5, 2001.

Start the timer.

Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), an inmate must file a application for a writ of habeas corpus within one year of the date that the state court judgment becomes final. The clock is tolled while state post-conviction or other collateral review is pending.

Archery Lynn Overstreet, in addition to having a highly unfortunate name, also has an exceptionally sordid past. In 1986, while on probation for a burglary, he joined his brother, Clifford Carter, burglarized a home, and stole 13 firearms and a car. The duo then shot a police officer (and missed another) after they were pulled over for a seatbelt violation. They fled to a relative's apartment complex, where they abducted, sexually assaulted, and shot a woman. She miraculously survived, despite four bullet wounds and a fall down an embankment.

He served 22 years of a 60 year sentence before being paroled in 2008. In 2010, he cut off his ankle monitor and fled Texas. He was caught a month later in Florida with a loaded gun and a roll of bloody duct tape. His wife, Taffy Overstreet, has never been found.

“Because we determine that Mr. Adkins is entitled to habeas relief based on his Batson claim, we do not decide his other claims.”

Batson was decided in 1986. How is it that we’re still talking about cases of prosecutors striking jurors for race-based reasons?

In late 1988, a jury was selected for the trial of Ricky Adkins, who was accused of murdering Billie Dean Hamilton. Both the defendant and the victim were Caucasian. During jury selection, the prosecutor used peremptory challenges to remove nine of eleven black members. Only one of the remaining two made the final jury.

You’re probably wondering, “why didn’t the defendant object?”

Thirty minutes from death, convicted murderer Warren Lee Hill's life was spared. It's the latest development in the case that has made multiple trips to state and federal appeals courts since its inception in 1990, when he murdered a fellow prisoner.

He lives to fight another day thanks to a last minute intervention by both the Eleventh Circuit and a state appeals court, reports the Atlantic. The state court wanted to take another look at Georgia's lethal injection procedures. The Eleventh Circuit may be revisiting their decision last year, and an issue of debate since 2002's United States Supreme Court decision in Atkins v. Virginia: execution of the mentally retarded.

Clifford Darden's European Basketball career apparently didn't go so well. In 2007, he committed two robberies. In the June robbery, he held up a convenience store and walked out with $300. In the July robbery, he walked out with $2,000 and a few bullets in his body, courtesy of an armed store clerk.

When the police arrived, Darden admitted to committing the robbery. He reiterated his confession at the hospital.

What's a defense counselor to do in such a situation? There are two robberies. In one, there is nearly no evidence, other than a witness describing a large black man as the culprit. In the other, there is a trail of blood leading to the defendant, who confessed everything.

We’re all familiar with summary judgment at this point. If someone moves for summary judgment, the court is supposed to take the disputed facts in a light most favorable to the non-moving party. After doing so, if there still isn’t enough alleged facts, the court can dismiss the claim.

Simple enough, right?

Miami Beach cops got a signed, written tip that drug dealing was occurring in an apartment occupied by Janet Feliciano, Edgardo Gonzaga, and their children. Officers acted on the tip and paid them a visit. They then forced entry and searched the apartment, including Feliciano’s underwear drawer and kitchen pantry.

Since retiring from the Supreme Court in 2005, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has kept herself busy with television appearances and making speeches at law schools. She also sits by designation when a circuit court is running low on judges.

The Eleventh was treated to an O’Connor appearance, and better yet, an O’Connor opinion, earlier this week. The defendant, Jason McGuire, was depressed and began firing a pistol willy-nilly into the night, necessitating a police response. He fired his last bullet in the air, in the general direction of a police helicopter. He was convicted of attempting to wreck, damage, or destroy an aircraft.