In United States v. Turner, No. 20-12364 (Mar. 1, 2023) (Rosenbaum, Tjoflat, Moody), the Court affirmed the defendant’s felon in possession conviction. At trial, the defendant raised an insanity defense. Over the defendant’s objection, the government’s expert psychologist who had evaluated the defendant testified that he was able to appreciate the nature and quality and [...]
In United States v. Heaton, No. 20-12568 (Feb. 14, 2023) (Wilson, Jill Pryor, Hull), the Court affirmed Dr. Heaton's convictions. Dr. Heaton was charged with one count of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense controlled substances, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(b)(1)(C), 843, & 846; 102 counts of unlawful dispensing of controlled substances to patients, in violation [...]
In United States v. Jackson, No. 19-11955 (Feb. 3, 2023) (William Pryor, Grant, Jung (M.D. Fla.)), the Court, on remand from the Supreme Court post-Concepcion, reinstated its prior decision affirming the denial of relief. Jackson moved to reduce his sentence under the First Step Act, arguing that he was eligible for a sentence reduction because a [...]
In In re: Grand Jury Subpoena, FGJ-21-01-MIA, No. 21-13651 (Jan. 31, 2023) (Wilson, Jordan, Brasher), the Court dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction. The appellant was the custodian of business entities that were served with subpoenas to appear before a grand jury, produce documents, and certify that the documents satisfied the business records exception [...]
In United States v. King, No. 21-12963 (Jan. 23, 2023) (Rosenbaum, Grant, Tjoflat), the Court—without oral argument—affirmed the defendant’s 36-month sentence for violating his supervised release. The Court rejected the defendant’s arguments that his sentence was substantively unreasonable. Although the defendant argued that the sentence was a major upward variance from the guideline range of [...]
In United States v. Scott, No. 21-11467 (Jan. 20, 2023) (Jordan, Rosenbaum, Newsom), the Court affirmed the defendant’s healthcare fraud convictions. First, and assuming that de novo review applied, the Court rejected the defendant’s belated challenge to the indictment on the ground that Medicare actually covered the testing he performed. And even if it did, [...]
In United States v. Dupree, No. 19-13776 (Jan. 18, 2023), the en banc Court held that the definition of “controlled substance offense” in U.S.S.G. 4B1.2(b) does not include inchoate offenses like conspiracy. In an opinion by Jill Pryor, and joined by Chief Judge Bill Pryor and Judges Wilson, Jordan, Rosenbaum, Newsom, Lagoa, and Brasher, the [...]
In United States v. Oudomsine, No. 22-10924 (Jan. 18, 2023) (Lagoa, Brasher, Ed Carnes), the Court affirmed the defendant’s 36-month sentence for providing false information to obtain pandemic-related benefits. The district court varied upward to 36 months from a guideline range of 8-14 months. The sentence was not procedurally unreasonable because the district court adequately [...]
In United States v. Moran, No. 21-12573 (Jan 13, 2013) (Jordan, Rosenbaum, Newsom), the Court affirmed the defendant’s convictions for attempting to produce child pornography. The defendant commented on several “mom blog” posts asking mothers to display sexually explicit imagines of their young daughters. First, the Court rejected the defendant’s sufficiency argument that he lacked [...]
In United States v. Harrison, No. 21-14514 (Jan. 10, 2023) (Wilson, Jill Pryor, Ruiz), the Court held, on a government appeal, that Georgia’s robbery statute is divisible, and that Georgia robbery by intimidation is a “crime of violence” under the Guidelines. First, the Court held that, under Mathis, Georgia’s robbery statute was divisible into three [...]