Criminal

September 25, 2020

Criminal cases in federal court are driven by mandatory minimum sentences. Drugs, guns, child pornography and sex trafficking (among others) all carry mandatory minimum sentences which used to mean that, if the government has the evidence and won’t let you plead to a lesser crime, you do the time. That just might have changed today with the advent of United States v. Zullo, an important decision handed down today by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.…

Lancaster Law Blog

Self-Certification for Increased Seating & An Unconstitutional Shutdown? – What This Means for Restaurants

By Aaron Zeamer

September 25, 2020

Given all the crazy twists and turns over the past few months, I keep thinking that things cannot get more difficult or confusing for folks in the hospitality industry… Clearly, I need to stop saying that. It somehow keeps getting worse. To say this has been an interesting couple of weeks is a pretty serious understatement. Hopefully, this post can provide some guidance and explanation on increasing to 50% capacity, completing self-certification, and understanding what…

On Point

Defense win! COA orders new TPR trial due to erroneous exclusion of evidence

By Wisconsin State Public Defender

September 25, 2020

Brown County Human Services v. T.F., 2020AP793, 9/22/20, District 3 (1-judge opinion, illegible for publication); case activity To establish grounds for terminating T.F.’s parental rights, the Department sought to prove that she had abandoned her daughter, Allie, for period of 6 months or longer. It filed a successful motion in limine seeking to exclude evidence […]…

On Point

COA affirms termination of parental rights despite daughter’s unwavering wish to be with her mom

By Wisconsin State Public Defender

September 25, 2020

N.M. v. State, 2020AP964, case activity; and State v. J.M.W., 2020AP1057, 9/22/20, case activity, District 1 (i-judge opinions, ineligible for publication) Anyone who loves an alcoholic parent will find this decision heart-wrenching. J.M.W. has a close relationship with her 11 year old daughter, N.M. Unfortunately, J.M.W. also struggles with alcoholism and unstable housing, so the […]…

Sentencing Law and Policy

Second Circuit panel rules unanimously that district courts have broad discretion to consider "<em>any</em> extraordinary and compelling reason for release that a defendant might raise"

By Douglas Berman

September 25, 2020

I am very pleased to see the first of what may soon be many circuit rulings on the reach and application of the compassionate release provisions amended by the federal FIRST STEP Act. As regular readers know, in lots of (pre-COVID) prior posts I made much of the provision of the FIRST STEP Act allowing federal courts to directly reduce sentences under the (so-called compassionate release) statutory provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A) without awaiting…

Jay K. Nixon's Law and Life

OWI 4 years Ago in North Dakota Now Revoking New WI DL and CDL

By Attorney Jay K. Nixon

September 25, 2020

https://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/authorized/what-do-i-do–4989883.html What do I do? I had a DUI in North Dakota in December of 2016. I live in Wisconsin. The penalty was 90 days loss of license. Wisconsin gave me my license back after 90 days and I never had SR22 insurance. I can’t get my CDL back until I carry that for a year. Except now my insurance company is dropping coverage because they found out about my DUI that’s almost…

Simple Justice

It’s Only New To You

By Scott Greenfield

September 25, 2020

There’s a joke that Keith Kaplan tells on twitters every once in a while, when someone new jumps into the middle of a discussion that’s been going on forever. It’s like Twitter is a bar argument that resets every time a new patron walks in and says, “so, what are we fighting about today?” For the new guy, it’s all new.* What a cool argument! Let’s start at the beginning, running through every claim, real…

Simple Justice

Seaton: A Mayor, A Sheriff and The Card

By Scott Greenfield

September 25, 2020

Mayor Tribe, sweating from a recently ingested cocktail of uppers and downers, jolted at his desk when Louise’s breathy voice buzzed through the phone. “Mayor Tribe, your three-o-clock is in Conference Room B,” his secretary said. Tribe’s three-o-clock meeting was with suits. Lawyers. He wasn’t sure what the problem was, but Tribe hoped he could get the matter resolved in short order. Lenny’d always been able to talk his way out of problems with suits…

Sentencing Law and Policy

Federal government completes its seventh (and final?) execution in 2020

By Douglas Berman

September 25, 2020

The federal government this evening completed is seventh execution in the span of just over two months. This AP article, headlined “Feds put first Black inmate to death since execution restart,” provides these details: A man who killed a religious couple visiting Texas from Iowa was executed Thursday, the first Black inmate put to death as part of the Trump administration’s resumption of federal executions. Christopher Vialva, 40, was pronounced dead shortly before 7…

Grand Jury Target

Does the Recent iPhone Update Create a (New) Powerful Tool for DOJ?

By Kropf Moseley

September 24, 2020

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By Sara Kropf The Department of Justice has embrace electronic surveillance in white-collar criminal cases. Search warrants to ISPs or phone companies for emails and text messages, or forensic analyses of a client’s electronic devices are the norm. I tell clients that by the time we learn about a criminal investigation, DOJ has already issued a search warrant or subpoena to Google for their Gmail account. One aspect of the the September 2020 update to…