Where an inmate challenged the denial of relief for failure to exhaust her administrative remedies, the denial of relief was proper, but the petition should have been dismissed without prejudice. Judgment is affirmed as modified. Banks-Davis v. U.S. (MLW No. ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law Failure To Exhaust Inmate Action

Defendant pleaded guilty to bank robbery. The district court concluded defendant was a career offender, based on two prior federal bank robbery convictions, and imposed a two-level guidelines enhancement to sentence defendant to a within-guidelines range sentence of 151 months’ ...

Tagged with: Bank Robbery Career Offender Criminal Law Guidelines Enhancement

Defendant was present during a murder and helped the murderer to clean the victim’s body of evidence and dispose of the body. Defendant pleaded guilty to being an accessory to second-degree murder. The district court found the applicable advisory guidelines ...

Tagged with: Accessory to Murder Criminal Law Guidelines Range Upward Departure

Where a defendant challenged his conviction for felony criminal nonsupport, there was sufficient evidence to support the conviction because the state was not required to establish as an essential element that the total arrearage accrued within a three-year period. Judgment ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law Felony Nonsupport Sufficiency Of Evidence

Where a defendant, who was convicted of the murder of her husband, sought post-conviction DNA testing, the judgment is affirmed because the trial court properly considered the impact that such evidence would have on the jury as well as the ...

Tagged with: Capital Murder Criminal Law Denial Of Motion DNA testing

Defendant was found guilty of selling controlled substances to an undercover officer and was sentenced as a persistent offender to serve 20 years’ incarceration. Defendant filed a motion for post-conviction relief, alleging 24 instances of ineffective assistance of counsel. The ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law Distribution of Controlled Substances ineffective assistance of counsel Post-Conviction Relief

Defendant moved to set aside his convictions for statutory sodomy, arguing that his sentence was illegal because his parole was conditioned on an admission of guilt even though he entered an Alford plea, and because plea counsel was ineffective for ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law ineffective assistance of counsel Legality of Sentence Motion to Set Aside Conviction

Where a defendant argued that a trial court erred in accepting his request to waive counsel and represent himself pro se, the record showed that the waiver of the right to counsel was knowing and voluntary, and the court did ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law Right To Counsel Self Representation Waiver

Where an offender completed and was released from a institutional treatment program, the circuit court erred by imposing a new probationary term and was authorized only to continue an existing term of probation, unless the circuit court had affirmatively manifested ...

Tagged with: Completion of Institutional Treatment Program Criminal Law Revocation of Probation

Where a defendant who pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered firearm challenged his sentence, the judgment is affirmed because the district court properly considered the relevant factors and did not abuse its discretion. Judgment is affirmed. U.S. v. Dygert ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law sentencing Substantive Reasonableness

Where a defendant challenged his sentence in an illegal reentry case, arguing that the district court failed to give sufficient weight to his difficult childhood, the court properly weighed the mitigating factors against the lengthy criminal history, and the court ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law Defendant’s Childhood sentencing Substantive Reasonableness