Missouri Lawyers Media Missouri legal news and public notices

Where a defendant challenged the reasonableness of his sentence, the appeal waiver is enforced, and to the extent that the defendant raised claims of ineffective assistance of counsel, the court declined to consider the claims, so the appeal is dismissed. ...

Tagged with: appeal waiver Ineffective Assistance Claim sentencing

Where a defendant challenged his sentence after his guilty plea to drug and firearm offenses, the plea agreement included an appeal waiver that was valid, enforceable and applicable to the issues raised on appeal, so the appeal is dismissed. Appeal ...

Tagged with: appeal waiver sentencing

  Where a defendant in a wire-fraud case argued that the district court erred by delaying its decision to revoke his pro se status until the third day of trial, the court did not abuse its discretion because there was ...

Tagged with: Revocation Self Representation

Defendant pleaded guilty to obstructing commerce by robbery after he robbed a drug store’s safe. On appeal, defendant challenged the district court’s determination that his conviction for robbery under 18 U.S.C. §1951 qualified as a “crime of violence” for a ...

Tagged with: Career-Offender Designation Obstructing Commerce by Robbery Predicate Crime of Violence

Where the district court failed to advise the defendant, who pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm while being an alien illegally present in the United States, that the government would need to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that he knew ...

Tagged with: Illegal Alien Knowledge of Status

Where a defendant challenged the denial of his third successive federal habeas corpus petition from his state law murder conviction, the district court properly found that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the petition because the defendant failed to establish by ...

Tagged with: Habeas Relief jurisdiction Successive Petition

Defendant pleaded guilty to a drug offense pursuant to a plea agreement that contained an appeal waiver. On appeal, defendant challenged the district court’s imposition of a within-guidelines range sentence, arguing that the government breached a supplement to the plea ...

Tagged with: appeal waiver Drug Offense Within-Guidelines Sentence

Defendant pleaded guilty to drug and firearms offenses pursuant to a plea agreement containing an appeal waiver. Defendant appealed from the district court’s imposition of a guidelines-range sentence, challenging the factual basis for his guilty plea and the validity of ...

Tagged with: appeal waiver Drug and Firearms Offenses Within-Guidelines Range Sentence

Where a defendant in a child-pornography case challenged the denial of his motion to compel, motions to suppress and request for a Franks hearing, the defendant’s argument that he was entitled to the production of code and software for the ...

Tagged with: Child Pornography Computer Software Franks Hearing

Where appellants challenged the denial of coverage for an insurance claim, the district court properly granted summary judgment based on precedent that a vexatious-refusal claim must fail when the insurer has no duty to cover the loss at issue. Judgment ...

Tagged with: Denial Of Coverage Vexatious Refusal

Where a petitioner from Mexico sought review of an order that dismissed her appeal from a decision denying her application for the withholding of removal, substantial evidence supported the denial because the petitioner failed to establish that she was a ...

Tagged with: Removal Voluntary Departure