On October 11, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed an 18-month sentence imposed on a 71-year-old defendant who was addicted to drugs and had violated the terms of his supervised release. The district court erroneously relied on an uncorroborated statement by the government that drug addicts required 18 months of
Category: Federal Sentencing
Duck Hunting Guide Fined $25,000
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Jeremy Schreiner, 33, Durand, Wis., was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court in Madison for violating the Lacey Act during guided duck hunts on the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge. According to an indictment filed on April 19, 2017,
Serial Fraudster Scholar to Receive Five Years’ Probation
Cayva Chandra pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of student loan fraud. She had submitted forged letters of recommendation and forged transcripts to several institutions of higher learning including Cornell University. Cornell caught and expelled her, but she was able to fraudlently enroll at Indiana Univeristy-Purdue University at Indianapolis. She then completed her bachelor’s degree
Five Year Sentence for Credit Card Theft Gangster
U.S. District Judge Susan C. Bucklew today sentenced Maurice Lewis (22, Tampa) to 5 years and 1 month in federal prison for conspiracy to commit credit card fraud and aggravated identity theft. He pleaded guilty to the charges on July 10, 2017. According to court documents and statements made in open court, from at least
Ineffective Assistance of Counsel at Sentencing
The American Bar Association’s “Criminal Justice Standards for the Defense Function” (4th ed.) strongly suggest that failure to research and cite favorable sentencing statistics may constitute ineffective assistance of counsel. In the seminal case of Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984), the U.S. Supreme Court observed that “prevailing norms of practice as reflected in the