Where a defendant sought a declaration that he was not required to serve a mandatory minimum of 85 percent of his life sentences for first-degree assault of a law enforcement officer, the convictions fell within the definition of dangerous felony, ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law Mandatory Minimum sentencing

Federal prosecutors are changing the way drug defendants are charged and punished, Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday, unveiling statistics that show sentences are increasingly being based less on rigid formulas and more on the circumstances of each crime.

Tagged with: Mandatory Minimum

An offender’s punishment shouldn’t depend on their good or bad luck in the sentencing judge they draw.

Tagged with: Mandatory Minimum

This week’s decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on criminal sentencing will reverberate most in drug and gun cases, which frequently have mandatory minimum prison sentences as an element.

Tagged with: Mandatory Minimum U.S. Supreme Court

Allowing a judge to decide facts that tack on time under mandatory minimum sentencing laws violates a defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial, the court said.

Tagged with: Mandatory Minimum U.S. Supreme Court

U.S. v. Zigler (MLW No. 64658/Case No. 12-2299 – 5 pages) (U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit, Bright, J.)

Tagged with: Criminal Law Mandatory Minimum Prior Conviction sentencing

U.S. v. Raysor (MLW No. 62992/Case No. 10-3169 – 6 pages) (U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit, Shepherd, J.)

Tagged with: Criminal Law Mandatory Minimum sentencing Shepherd

Where a defendant who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine base was sentenced to the mandatory minimum of 120 months, the defendant’s due process challenge to the mandatory minimum sentence is foreclosed by the court’s decision in U.S. v. ...

Tagged with: Criminal Law Mandatory Minimum sentencing