Justia Criminal Law Opinion Summaries

Defendant was tried for various crimes arising from his involvement with the M Street Crew, a gang in Washington D.C., and was found guilty of narcotics conspiracy, participation in a Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO), 18 U.S.C. 1961, drug dealing, four felony murders, assault with intent to kill while armed, assault on a police officer, three violent crimes in aid of racketeering activity (VICAR), 18 U.S.C. 1959, and various gun charges. Defendant raised several issues on appeal, claiming error in the government's use of peremptory challenges, in rejecting his challenge to the joinder of local and federal charges, in denying his motion for severance, and in denying his motion for judgment of acquittal. The court held that there was no reversible error and rejected defendant's claims, affirming the judgment of the court.

Defendant appealed her sentence of 60 months' imprisonment resulting from her convictions of possession of stolen mail and aggravated identity theft. On appeal, defendant contended that the district court failed to consider two mitigating arguments she advanced. The court affirmed the judgment of the district court because the record reflected that the district court in fact considered both arguments and provided a reasoned basis for defendant's sentence.

Defendant pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 100 grams or more of a mixture and substance containing heroin. At issue was whether defendant could qualify under 18 U.S.C. 3553(f)(5) without disclosing the fate of the sample provided by the seller but not delivered in the transaction, or the origin of the sample that he did deliver to the buyer. The court agreed with the district court that defendant did not qualify for safety-valve relief where defendant's omission of the information at issue concerned his offense of conviction and was essential to safety-valve relief.

Appellant and a co-defendant were extradited from Panama following their indictment on one count of conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, intending or knowing that it would be imported into the United States from Columbia, Panama, Nicaragua, and elsewhere outside of the United States. Appellant challenged his conviction and sentence. The court held that the district court had jurisdiction over the charged conspiracy because appellant's extradition conformed with the governing treaty between the United States and Panama, and appellant waived his venue challenge by not raising it in the district court. Appellant identified no plain error affecting his substantial rights in the district court's acceptance of his guilty plea. Further, appellant failed to show he was denied effective assistance of counsel as would entitle him to reversal of his conviction. Because appellant presented no grounds for setting aside the judgment based on his guilty plea, the waiver of his right to appeal a below-Guidelines sentence set forth in the plea agreement was valid. Accordingly, the court dismissed the appeal of his sentence and affirmed the judgment of conviction

Defendant sought reversal of his conviction by a jury for unlawful possession with intent to distribute cocaine and aiding and abetting, claiming trial evidentiary errors. Because defendant elicited testimony concerning the officer's law enforcement experience with drug trafficking in an attempt to demonstrate he was conditioned to see the benign items seized from defendant's bedroom as drug paraphernalia, and elicited his opinion regarding one of those items, defendant failed to show prejudice even assuming the testimony was improperly admitted. Circuit precedent confirmed defendant's other contentions were without merit. The district court neither abused its discretion in excluding expert evidence on the ultimate question in the case, nor erred in allowing the prosecutor to ask guilt-assuming hypothetical questions of a character witness testifying about her personal opinion. Accordingly, the court affirmed the conviction.

Defendant was convicted of conspiring with a male accomplice to extort money from an ex-lover, a doctor, by threatening to expose their brief extramarital affair to his wife and the medical licensing board. Defendant appealed her conviction on the grounds that the district court improperly denied her a duress instruction and improperly instructed the jury on venue. The court held that the district court correctly declined to instruct the jury on the affirmative defense of duress where no reasonable juror could have found defendant lacked a legal alternative to committing the crime. Further, the conspiracy instruction given by the district court did not require the jury to find that any overt act occurred in Washington, D.C., and defendant did not ask the district court to have the jury determine venue. Therefore, the district court did not commit plain error of any kind. Accordingly, the conviction was affirmed.

Defendant filed a petition for habeas corpus in the district court of the District of Columbia and the district court dismissed the petition for want of jurisdiction, reasoning that defendant was required to pursue his challenge in D.C. Superior Court rather than federal court because his D.C. Code 23-110 remedy was not inadequate or ineffective. Defendant subsequently applied for a certificate of appealability (COA). The court concluded that jurists of reason would not find defendant's claim that the district court had jurisdiction "debatable" because Diamen v. United States could not be reasonably read to bar defendant from bringing his federal constitutional claims in D.C. Superior Court under section 23-110. Accordingly, the court denied the COA.

Appellant appealed his conviction and sentence on two counts of attempted tax evasion. Appellant argued that the government failed to prove the element of tax loss because it relied upon a flawed calculation under the "cash method of proof" and attributed to appellant $1.9 million of alleged gain when those funds, as a matter of law, belonged to his two corporations. Appellant challenged his sentence to the extent it rested upon the allegedly incorrect calculation of tax loss. The court found no error in the district court's denial of defendant's motions for judgment of acquittal. The court also held that, because a rational trier of fact could find beyond a reasonable doubt a tax was due and owing on $300,000 of income, the court left for another day how best to interpret the dictum in James v. United States. The court affirmed the sentence because the district court made sufficient factual findings at sentencing to support the inclusion of the $1.9 million in the calculation of tax loss.

Plaintiffs brought this action against the Department of Justice under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. 552, seeking to obtain documents relating to the government's use of cell phone location data in criminal prosecutions. The district court directed the release of certain specified documents and upheld the Department's decision to withhold others. The court affirmed the district court's order requiring the release of the specified documents. The court held, however, that because there were too many factual uncertainties regarding the remaining documents, the court vacated the balance of the district court's decision and remanded the case for further development of the record.

Appellant, a detainee at the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, appealed the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. At issue was whether the district court erred in concluding that intelligence reports offered by the government to prove his membership in the Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) cell were reliable. The court held that there was no error in the district court's careful consideration of the evidence and affirmed the denial of appellant's petition.