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Supreme Court Holds General Statute of Limitations is Not Jurisdictional Defense
It appears that not even this weekend’s colossal winter snowstorm could deter the Supreme Court from its business, today deciding several criminal cases on its docket. In addition to the landmark Montgomery v. Louisiana decision, which gives retroactive effect to Miller v. Alabama and will… Read More
Third Circuit confirms right of defendant not to be cross-examined during sentencing allocution
This guest post was authored by our colleague Michael C. Witsch, an associate in the firm’s Litigation Department in Philadelphia. Michael can be reached at mwitsch@mmwr.com or 215.772.7592. On Tuesday, January 5, the Third Circuit ordered resentencing in the case of a Pittsburgh-area appraiser who… Read More
Seventh Circuit Upholds Non-Incarceration Sentence for Beanie Baby Creator
This guest post was authored by Mara Smith, a summer associate with Montgomery McCracken. On Friday, the Seventh Circuit upheld what it determined to be a substantively reasonable sentence for billionaire Ty Warner, the creator of Beanie Babies. We previously blogged about Warner’s district court sentencing,… Read More
Commission Proposes Limited, Though Significant, Amendments to Fraud Guidelines
As we previously noted, the U.S. Sentencing Commission has been considering changes to the Sentencing Guidelines for economic crimes. This deliberation over Section 2B1.1 stems, in part, from criticism from practitioners, judges, and scholars suggesting that “the fraud [G]uideline[s] may be fundamentally broken.” Indeed, as… Read More
ABA Task Force Proposes Significant Change to Fraud Guidelines
When the U.S. Sentencing Commission adopted the original Sentencing Guidelines in 1987, it sought to ensure that white collar offenders faced “short but definite period[s] of confinement.” U.S. Sentencing Commission, Fifteen Years of Guidelines Sentencing: An Assessment of How Well the Criminal Justice System is… Read More