In United States v. Tinker, No. 20-14474 (Sept. 28, 2021) (Wilson, Newsom, Branch) (per curiam), the Court held that a district court does not procedurally err when it denies a request for compassionate release based on the 18 U.S.C. 3553(a) sentencing factors (or U.S.S.G. 1B1.13's policy statement) without first explicitly determining whether the defendant could present [...]
In Somers v. United States, No. 19-11484 (Sept. 28, 2021) (Jill Pryor, Anderson, and Marcus), the Court granted the petition for rehearing, vacated its previous opinion and judgment, substituted this opinion in its place, and certified to the Florida Supreme Court the following two questions about the nature of Florida's assault statutes: Does the first element of [...]
In United States v. Watkins, No. 18-14336 (Sept. 16, 2021) (Luck, Ed Carnes, Marcus), on remand from the en banc Court, the Court reversed and remanded to the district court for further proceedings. The Court originally reversed the district court's order granting the defendant's motion to suppress on the government's interlocutory appeal. Though the government conceded that [...]
In United States v. Braddy, No. 19-12823 (Aug. 31, 2021) (Rosenbaum, Lagoa, Ed Carnes), the Court affirmed the denial a motion to suppress. First, the Court held that the officer had reasonable suspicion make the traffic stop after observing bicycles obstructing the car’s Florida license plate. The defendant argued that Alabama traffic law did not [...]
In In re: Sealed Searched Warrant and Application for a Warrant by Telephone or Other Reliable Electronic Means (United States v. Korf et al.), No. 20-14223 (Aug. 30, 2021) (Martin, Rosenbaum, Luck) (per curiam), the Court upheld the denial of a motion to enjoin the use of a government filter team. The government executed a [...]
In Mitchell v. Duvall County et al., No. 19-14505 (Aug. 26, 2021) (Branch, Grant, Tjoflat), the Court re-affirmed that it clearly violates the First Amendment for prison officials to open an inmate’s legal mail outside of his presence. https://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/201914505.pdf http://defensenewsletter.blogspot.com/
In United States v. Watkins, No. 18-14336 (Aug. 20, 2021), the en banc Court—in a joint opinion by Judges Martin and Ed Carnes—granted the defendant’s rehearing petition and vacated the panel opinion without oral argument. The en banc Court held that the standard of proof that the government must meet in order to establish that [...]
In United States v. Gonzalez, No. 19-14381 (Aug. 19, 2021) (Jordan, Newsom, Tjoflat), the Court affirmed the denial of a motion for a reduced sentence under Section 404 of the First Step Act. Joining two other circuits, and accepting the government’s concession, the Court held that a sentence imposed upon revocation of supervised release can [...]
In United States v. Coats, No. 18-13113 (Aug. 12, 2021) (Martin, Newsom, Julie Carnes), the Court, in a 75-page opinion, affirmed the defendant’s felon in possession conviction and affirmed his ACCA sentence. As to the conviction, the Court found no plain error under Rehaif. Although the district court committed error that was plain by accepting [...]
In United States v. Harris, No. 19-13692 (Aug. 9, 2021) (Jill Pryor, Newsom, Marcus), the Court affirmed the defendants’ drug and firearm convictions stemming from a reverse sting police corruption investigation. First, there was sufficient evidence to support the defendants’ convictions based on the evidence at trial. Second, while there was sufficient defense evidence of [...]