In United States v. Campbell, Case No. 16-10128 (Feb. 16, 2022), the en banc Court--in an opinion authored by Judge Tjoflat--considered whether the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule is a proper ground for affirming Mr. Campbell's conviction despite the government's failure to raise that alternative ground before the panel, and answered in the affirmative. The [...]
In United States v. Dennis, Case No. 21-10316 (Feb. 16, 2022) (William Pryor, Jordan, Anderson), the Court affirmed Ms. Dennis's revocation sentence. The issue addressed on appeal concerned the notice that a probationer must receive before her probation can be revoked. Ms. Dennis was serving a sentence of 24 months probation when probation filed a petition [...]
In United States v. Williams, Case No. 20-14187 (Feb. 15, 2022) (Wilson, Luck, Lagoa), the Court affirmed the denial of Mr. Williams's motion for a sentence reduction under § 404 of the First Step Act, finding that he was not sentenced for a covered offense. Mr. Williams pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of unspecified amounts [...]
In Washington v. Durand, Case No. 20-12148 (Feb. 7, 2022) (William Pryor, Lagoa, Schlesinger (M.D. Fla.)), the Court, in a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 case, addressed whether an officer must release a suspect detained pursuant to a valid arrest warrant when the officer learns of possibly exculpatory evidence. Here, during the investigation of the murder of an [...]
In United States v. Maurya, Case No. 19-10746 (Feb. 1, 2022) (William Pryor, Grant, Anderson), the Court affirmed Nathan Hardwick's convictions, but vacated the restitution portion of his sentence and remanded. The Court vacated Asha Maurya's sentence and remanded for resentencing. On appeal, both Hardwick and Maurya challenged the restitution order requiring a payment of over $40 [...]
In Chamu v. U.S. Att'y Gen., No. 19-13908 (Jan. 26, 2022) (Branch, Grant, Brasher), the Court, on appeal from a Board of Immigration Appeals ("BIA") decision, found Mr. Chamu ineligible for cancellation of removal on account of his prior conviction of an offense "relating to a controlled substance (as defined in section 802 of title 21)"--namely cocaine [...]
In United States v. Nicholson, No. 19-11669 (Jan. 24, 2022) (Jill Pryor, Luck, and Brasher), the Court affirmed Nicholson's convictions for child pornography and child sex abuse. On appeal, Nicholson made three arguments: (1) the evidence was insufficient as to three counts; (2) the district court should have suppressed the evidence from the searches that occurred in [...]
In United States v. Smith, No. 20-12667 (Jan. 12, 2022) (William Pryor, Grant, Hull), the Court vacated the defendant's conviction for theft of trade secrets and related sentencing enhancements for lack of venue, affirmed the extortion conviction and related sentencing enhancements, and remanded for resentencing. The Court addressed whether an accused can be tried in a [...]
In United States v. Fleury, No. 20-11037 (Dec. 16, 2021) (Wilson, Rosenbaum, Hull), the Court affirmed the defendant’s convictions for transmitting interstate threats and cyberstalking. First, the Court rejected the defendant’s facial and as-applied First Amendment challenges to the cyberstalking statute. Joining every circuit to address the issue, the Court held that the statute was [...]
In Telcy v. United States, No. 19-13029 (Dec. 10, 2021) (Wilson, Lagoa, Brasher), the Court affirmed the dismissal of a 2255 motion as an unauthorized second or successive motion. The issue on appeal was whether a sentence reduction under Section 404 of the First Step Act qualifies as a “new judgment” for purposes of the [...]