The last week of July brought a host of significant developments in Michigan criminal law. The Michigan Supreme Court issued decisions or orders in People v. Stovall, No. 162425, People v. Poole, No. 161529, People v. Parks,...more
TODAY, THE SUPREME COURT GRANTED CERTIORARI IN ONE CASE: Jones v. Mississippi, No. 18-1259: Whether the Eighth Amendment requires the sentencing authority to make a finding that a juvenile is permanently incorrigible...more
In United States v. Sierra, the Second Circuit (Newman, Jacobs, Droney) wrote a short published decision that rejected the argument raised by several defendants that it violated the “cruel and unusual” provision of the Eighth...more
New Prime Inc. v. Oliveira, No. 17-340: (1) Whether a dispute over applicability of the Federal Arbitration Act’s (“FAA”) Section 1 exemption, which provides that the FAA does not apply “to contracts of employment of seamen,...more
In a summary order on January 2, 2018 in United States v. Reyes, the Court (Winter, Lynch, Droney) vacated and remanded a life sentence as procedurally unreasonable on the ground that the district court failed to properly...more
On June 19, 2017, the Second Circuit (Katzmann, Kearse, Livingston) issued a per curiam decision in United States v. Burden, et al., vacating the term of supervised release imposed on the defendants and remanding the case for...more
On May 31, 2017, the Second Circuit issued its long-awaited decision in the “Silk Road” case, United States v. Ulbricht, (15-1815-cr) (2nd Cir. May 31, 2017) (Newman, Lynch, Droney). The panel affirmed Ulbricht’s conviction...more
In a decision dated March 10, 2017, the Circuit issued a blistering decision vacating the district court’s denial of the defendant’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea in United States v. Johnson, No. 15-3498-cr (Jacobs, J.,...more
On May 29, 2015, after a lengthy criminal investigation and multi-week trial, Ross Ulbricht, the mastermind behind Silk Road—one of the most famous enterprises to utilize Bitcoin currency—was sentenced to life in prison in a...more