Since 2011. An occasional commonplacing of the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal.
Neither an authoritative statement of the law nor legal advice. Quick work.
Statute on the misuse of passports can't be extended to counterfeit passports.
No plain error in lay identification of deft in photos, since the photos were from a time at which the witness knew the defendant.
No clear error in sentencing determination that all of the funds in the deft's account were proceeds of fraud.
No error in exclusion of expert witness at summary judgment for the purposes of translating blurred video into spatial analysis, as the finder of fact would ultimately base their judgment on personal observation of the video. No error in the exclusion of expert witness on possible medical causes of decedent's behavior, as the officer's judgment was the relevant conduct.
Video evidence does not sufficiently discredit officer's account.
Suspect's biting of the officer's finger during the struggle made shooting the suspect several times in the chest a reasonable act, as the officer feared that he wouldn't be able to defend himself if the finger were to be lost. Earlier tasing of the suspect also held to be reasonable.
Given that expert testimony sufficiently established that the DNA testing technology was generally sufficiently reliable, the question of its reliability when using small sample sizes is a matter to be determined at trial.
Historical cell site information obtained without a warrant appropriately considered under the good faith exception.
Where the underlying data was also admitted, testimony by only one of several collaborating investigators did not violate the Confrontation Clause.
Investigator's testimony that the technical evidence was consistent with the physical investigation was not improper vouching or bolstering.
As Hobbs Act Robbery is simply the common law felony in an interstate commerce and a non-physical threat therefore wouldn't fall within its scope, the completed crime is categorically a crime of violence.
As the attempt presumes the full offense, the US Code generally defines attempts specific to each offense, and the intent of the legislature was to prevent violent crime, attempted Hobbs Act Robbery is categorically a crime of violence.
Jury instructions sufficiently identified the robbery, and not the conspiracy as the predicate for convictions under the Hobbs Act.
Where deft counsel approves plan of insulating confession of codefendant from incriminating the deft, review is for plain error; in this case, no error plain or otherwise when incriminating conclusion could only be reached by inference.
District Court did not abuse its discretion in issuing a protective order prohibiting leaving cooperating witnesses' statements with the deft, as there was sufficient showing of good cause, the Jencks Act statutory right to the materials was adequately preserved, and deft's courtroom misbehavior justified the limitation on the 6A right to the materials.
Court adequately ensured sufficient Jencks Act access to agents' notes by questioning testifying agent as to scope of note-taking and accepting their answer.
Limiting instruction delivered standing-up after deft's courtroom outburst appropriately preserved the proceedings against mistrial.
Prosecutor's recital of plea condition that cooperating witness must tell the truth was not improper vouching, neither was the court's reference to "a cooperating witness of the United States of America."
No plain error in instruction on deft's testimony indicating an interest in the case, as it didn't belabor the fact; lack of limiting instruction against codeft's outburst wasn't plain error given other evidence of guilt.
Identification and withdrawal of claim of sentencing error during proceeding waives the claim in direct review.
No abuse of discretion in not considering mandatory minimums for other counts.
Court appropriately refused to consider elements of competency report as hearsay, as they lacked required indicia of credibility.
Plausible rationale makes 228 month bank robbery sentence not substantively unreasonable.
Deft claim that money could be cleaned from the damage done by anti-theft devices is speculative; FDIC coverage of stolen funds should not be considered in restitution order, as insurance is generally not considered.
No substantive sentencing error in 228 month sentence for bank robbery.
Ineffective Assistance claim insufficiently clear in the record for consideration on direct review.
Although the photographs of the mannequins in the possession of the deft wasn't inextricably interlinked with the crime, their admission was more probative than prejudicial.
Testimony on historical abuse was appropriately admitted to establish character or propensity to commit certain acts.
Hearsay evidence from prior police investigation appropriately cabined by limiting instruction.
As during the trial the appellant didn't argue the relevance of the excluded evidence to comparative negligence factors (including risk avoidance), and the jury wasn't instructed on these factors, no material harm from the exclusion of employee handbook, given that the verdict found negligence, but less than a preponderance, barring any recovery under comparative negligence.
Similarly, appellant didn't argue below that the excluded expert testimony would be useful in allocating fault, so no material hamr from exclusion.
Dissent:
As comparative negligence is simply the degree of negligence, arguing negligence below suffices to consider the harm. Per precedent, court should have a fair assurance of the error not being dispositive.
As Congress retains the power to legislate on police power matters in Puerto Rico, the amendment of the relevant statute to include commonwealths sufficiently indicated the intent of Congress that the law should apply to crimes committed entirely within the non-state commonwealth.
Sufficient evidence for conviction, as the impeachment of the witness didn't make the finder of fact's crediting of other evidence unreasonable.
Instructing the jury on the state predicate offense didn't confuse them about which offense they were weighing.
As live video testimony is only available in certain situations where the witness cannot reasonably communicate because of fear, allowing a witness to testify remotely where the fear was generalized to the situation and not specific to the deft, and the court accepted the witness' statement without adopting it as a reasoned finding, a retrial is an appropriate remedy.
Concur:
Constitutional status of Puerto Rico is still that of an unincorporated territory, as the law creating the Commonwealth changed governance procedures rather than constitutional status, and was not a compact.