Missouri Lawyers Media Missouri legal news and public notices

Where a defendant in a methamphetamine-conspiracy case challenged his sentence, the district court did not clearly err in deciding to accord little or no weight to the defendant’s explanation for his conduct, and the sentence was not substantively unreasonable, so ...

Tagged with: sentencing Substantive Reasonableness

Where a defendant challenged his sentence and the validity of his guilty plea in a felon-in-possession case, the term of supervised release is vacated and the matter is remanded for the district court to enter a judgment conforming to the ...

Tagged with: Guilty Plea Obstruction Of Justice sentencing

Where a defendant argued that the district court erred in applying a sentencing enhancement for using or possessing a firearm in connection with another felony offense, the defendant’s reasoning was rejected in prior caselaw, and the judgment is affirmed because ...

Tagged with: Enhancement sentencing

Where a defendant challenged his sentence in a drug case arguing that double counting occurred when guidelines calculations included both the drugs seized on that date and a consideration of his supervised-release status, the district court evaluated the seriousness of ...

Tagged with: Double Counting sentencing

Where a defendant challenged his sentence after pleading guilty to a firearm offense, the district court properly calculated the base offense level, and the defendant failed to support his claim of diminished capacity, so the court properly denied the request ...

Tagged with: Base-Level Calculation Downward Departure sentencing

Where a defendant appealed following his guilty plea in a drug-conspiracy case, the appeal waiver was valid and enforceable and applicable to the appeal, so the appeal is dismissed. Appeal is dismissed. U.S. v. Bradshaw (MLW No.74613/Case No. 19-2362 – ...

Tagged with: appeal waiver sentencing

Defendant pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute. The preliminary investigation report recommended classifying defendant as a career offender. The district court accepted the classification despite defendant’s objection and imposed a downward variance on his guidelines range. Defendant challenged ...

Tagged with: Career-Offender Designation Downward Sentence Variance Possession with Intent to Distribute

Where a defendant argued that a district court erred by admitting evidence seized after a warrantless protective sweep of his home, the police observed incriminating evidence during a lawful protective sweep following a home break-in, so the evidence was properly ...

Tagged with: Plain View Doctrine Protective Sweep

Where a defendant in a petition for a writ of habeas corpus claimed that the Bureau of Prisons should not have changed his early release date, the case became moot when the defendant was released from prison, so the appeal ...

Tagged with: Early Release Date Habeas Relief mootness

Defendant appealed from the sentence imposed after he pleaded guilty to a drug offense, pursuant to a plea agreement that contained an appeal waiver. On appeal, defendant challenged the substantive reasonableness of his sentence. Where the appeal waiver was enforceable ...

Tagged with: appeal waiver Drug Offense Substantive Reasonableness of Sentence

Defendant appealed from his conviction for drug and firearms offenses, arguing that the district court erroneously admitted eyewitness identification evidence, failed to instruct the jury on eyewitness identification, and violated his Sixth Amendment right to counsel. Defendant also challenged the ...

Tagged with: Drug and Firearms Offenses Eyewitness Identification Sufficiency Of Evidence