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March 17, 2006

Rough day for defendants in the circuits

Its been a relatively quiet week for sentencing rulings from the circuit courts (and I have not had the energy to report a number of smaller rulings).  But today brings a number of decisions from a number of circuits that seem worth noting.  The theme is that defendants' efforts to upset their sentences are rejected in all the rulings below:

From the Second Circuit: US v. Hicks, No. 04-3299 (2d Cir. Mar. 17, 2006) (available here) (affirming life sentence over various constitutional objections).

From the Seventh Circuit: US v. Owens, No. 05-2397 (7th Cir. Mar. 17, 2006) (available here) (discussing district court's refusal to depart/vary for various reasons).

From the Eighth Circuit: US v. Vasquez-Cardona, No. 05-3059 (8th Cir. Mar. 17, 2006) (available here) (discussing district court's refusal to depart/vary for fast-track disparity and other reasons).

From the Eleventh Circuit: US v. Brehm, No. 05-13426 (11th Cir. Mar. 17, 2006) (available here) (discussing application of the statutory safety valve after Booker).

UPDATE:  A reader's comment points me to a couple of habeas cases in which the Ninth Circuit broke ranks from this trend; perhaps the weekend will permit me time to discuss rulings that can be found here and here.

March 17, 2006 at 03:56 PM | Permalink

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Comments

Doug, have you checked today's Ninth Circuit decisions? I would say the theme of the day is not quite so consistent.

Posted by: Kent Scheidegger | Mar 17, 2006 4:34:07 PM

Kent's right -- it was a good day Friday for habeas petitioners in the Ninth Circuit, both capital and non.

Posted by: keith | Mar 18, 2006 11:13:50 AM

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