Justia Criminal Law Opinion Summaries

The First Circuit held that a conviction under 21 U.S.C. 846 for conspiring to commit a controlled substance offense qualifies as a conviction for a controlled substance offense under U.S.S.G. 4B1.2(b), even though section 846 does not require proof of an overt act.Defendant pled guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm as a convicted felon and unlawful possession of a machine gun. In sentencing Defendant, the district court applied a controlled substance enhancement based on Defendant's previous drug distribution conspiracy conviction under 21 U.S.C. 846. On appeal, Defendant argued that his prior conviction did not qualify as a conspiracy offense for purposes of U.S.S.G. 2K2.1 because a conviction under section 846 does not have as an element the commission of an overt act. The First Circuit affirmed, holding that conspiring under section 846 is "conspiring" within the meaning of Application Note 1 to section 4B1.2(b). View "United States v. Rodriguez-Rivera" on Justia Law

The First Circuit affirmed the judgment of the district court denying Defendant's petition for habeas corpus relief under 28 U.S.C. 2255(a), holding that Defendant was not actually prejudiced by instructions given to the jury in her case.Defendant was convicted of procuring naturalization based on false statements to immigration officials about her conduct during the Rwandan genocide and of procuring naturalization as an ineligible person. After the First Circuit affirmed the convictions, the Supreme Court decided Maslenjak v. United States, 137 S. Ct. 1918 (2017), which held that the government must show that an illegality played a role in the acquisition of citizenship to prove a violation of 18 U.S.C. 1425(a). Defendant filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus challenging the materiality instruction given in her case based on Maslenjak. The district court denied the petition. The First Circuit affirmed, holding that any assumed Maslenjak error in the challenged instruction did not substantially influence the jury's decision. View "Munyenyezi v. United States" on Justia Law

The First Circuit affirmed the convictions received by Defendants, three former employees of the New England Compounding Center (NECC), for a number of federal offenses related to aspects of NECC's operation that were identified in the course of a federal criminal investigation into NECC's medication, holding that there was no prejudicial error.In 2012, patients across the country began falling ill after having been injected with a contaminated medication compounded by NECC. After many of these patients died, a federal criminal investigation ensued. A jury found Stepanets, Svirskiy, and Leary each guilty of committing multiple federal crimes. The First Circuit affirmed Defendants' convictions and Stepanets' sentence, holding (1) there was sufficient evidence to support the convictions; (2) it was not clear or obvious error under the Eighth Amendment for the district court to impose the sentence that Stepanets received; (3) Svirskiy's challenges to his convictions were without merit; and (4) Leary's arguments on appeal were unavailing. View "United States v. Stepanets" on Justia Law

The First Circuit affirmed Defendant's conviction in the United States District Court for the District of Maine for possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, holding that the district court did not err in denying Defendant's motion for a hearing under Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154 (1978).After he was charged, Defendant filed a motion to suppress evidence discovered during a search of his home due to what he claimed were false statements and omissions in the affidavit supporting the application for the search warrant. The district court denied the suppression motion, including Defendant's request for an evidentiary hearing. The First Circuit affirmed, holding that the district court did not err in denying Defendant's Franks motion. View "United States v. Alexandre" on Justia Law

The First Circuit affirmed the judgment of the district court denying Appellant's petition to vacate his conviction and sentence stemming from a 2003 plea agreement for being a felon in possession of a firearm, holding that the district court did not err.In his petition, citing 28 U.S.C. 2255, Appellant argued that because Criminal Procedure Rule 7 provides that an indictment "must be signed by" a government lawyer and because an assistant United States attorney in his case signed the indictment in 2003 despite having a suspended license to practice law, the indictment was invalidated, stripping the district court of jurisdiction. The district court denied the petition. The First Circuit affirmed, holding that Appellant was not entitled to relief. View "Kelley v. United States" on Justia Law

The First Circuit affirmed Defendant's conviction for possession of child pornography, holding that the Government's evidence was sufficient to convict Defendant.The district court denied Defendant's motions for judgment of acquittal, filed during the trial and then after the verdict, and then sentencing him to a prison term of time served followed by supervised release. On appeal, Defendant argued that the district court erred by denying his motions because the evidence was not sufficient to convict him. The First Circuit affirmed, holding that, even under the standard of review most favorable to Defendant, his sufficiency of the evidence challenge failed. View "United States v. Torres-Monje" on Justia Law

The First Circuit affirmed Defendant's conviction of unlawful possession of a firearm, holding that there was no error in the proceedings below.Law enforcement officers stopped Defendant as he drove by in a vehicle that the officers believed matched the description of a vehicle that had just been involved in a shooting. The officers arrested Defendant and then deployed a firearm-detecting dog to inspect the outside of the vehicle. The dog sniff results where then used to obtain a search warrant for the vehicle. Based on the results of the search, Defendant was convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the district court did not err by denying Defendant's motion to suppress; and (2) Defendant was not entitled to a new trial due to certain evidentiary rulings because there was no error, either individually or cumulatively. View "United States v. Centeno-Gonzalez" on Justia Law

The First Circuit reversed the decision of the district court granting Defendant's motion to suppress the evidence discovered during an inventory search of a vehicle that a Massachusetts State Police trooper stopped on a highway, holding that the trooper had reasonable suspicion to make the stop.In his motion to suppress, Defendant argued that the warrantless search of his vehicle violated the Fourth Amendment. In response, the government argued that the inventory search fell within the community caretaking function. The district court disagreed, holding that there was no non-investigatory reason to conduct the inventory search. The First Circuit reversed, holding that the district court erred in granting Defendant's motion to suppress. View "United States v. Rivera" on Justia Law

The First Circuit affirmed the judgment of the district court revoking Defendant's supervised release and sentencing him to six months of imprisonment and an additional eight years of supervised release, holding that Defendant's constitutional rights were not violated.On appeal, Defendant argued that the revocation of his release violated his privilege against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment and that his suspension from treatment violated his Fifth Amendment due process right. The First Circuit disagreed, holding (1) a court in this circuit can impose mandatory periodic polygraph examinations in connection with sex offender treatment programs as a condition of supervised release, where the condition prohibits basing revocation in any way on the defendant's assertion of his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination; (2) in this case, no penalty was attached to Defendant's potential invocation of the Fifth Amendment privilege, and therefore, his privilege was not violated; and (3) Defendant's suspension from sex offender treatment did not violate his Fifth Amendment right to due process. View "United States v. Rogers" on Justia Law

The First Circuit vacated Defendant's sentence and remanded this case for resentencing, holding that the district court must recalculate the Guidelines sentencing range.Defendant pleaded guilty to charges of distributing and possessing with intent to distribute cocaine. Before sentencing, Defendant argued that this prior conviction as a joint venturer for an otherwise violent crime did not qualify for career-offender status. The district court sentenced Defendant to thirty months' imprisonment and six years of supervised release. The government appealed, arguing that the district court erred in deciding not to apply the career-offender enhancement. The First Circuit vacated the sentence, holding that the case must be remanded for resentencing in light of United States v. Capelton, 966 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 2020). View "United States v. Maldonado" on Justia Law