In Plain Cite

Our team looks at the recent changes to the Sentencing Commission's recommended conditions of supervised release, examine some of the other Guideline amendments that went into effect at the beginning of November, and check in on the state of the Johnson union.

Today, Jonathan and Lex discuss Birchfield, which deals with the fourth amendment and blood alcohol and breath tests; Strieff which focuses on attenuation and the fourth amendment; Luis which touches on seizure of funds before a trial; Ocasio, conspiracy, Hobbs Act extortion; Voisine and misdemeanor crime of domestic violence; and Musacchio, which touches on instructions, appeals, and sufficiency of evidence

Looking forward to the 2016 Supreme Court term which begins in October, we preview Bravo-Fernandez and double jeopardy; Moore and the eighth amendment and Steinbeck.

The office's summer interns offer a critique on how Supervised Release works in today's federal justice system and share their ideas on how to improve the same.

A quick discussion of the basics practitioners need to know as the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court's Johnson decision approaches and, along with it, the deadline for filing 2255 motions seeking relief under it.

On this episode of In Plain Cite, Jonathan, Lex, and Rhett discuss guideline amendments adopted by the United States Sentencing Commission and then bring us some commentary on recent Fourth Amendment rulings made by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In Episode 7 of In Plain Cite, our hosts, Jonathan and Lex, take a look at amendments to the US Sentencing Guidelines that were proposed in August 2015. Those amendments would overhaul the definition "crime of violence" in the wake of the Supreme Court's recent decision in Johnson, some in ways that would benefit defendants and others in ways that would not. We also catch up on the progress (or lack thereof) of criminal justice reform in Congress as we head into 2016.

Episode 6 of In Plain Cite answers a question from our Criminal Just Act panel. Lex and Rachel review some of the more important United States Sentencing Guideline amendments that went into effect on November 1, 2015. The discussion includes changes to the guidelines dealing with Hydrocodone, the Mitigating Role Adjustment, Inflationary Adjustments, Economic Loss, and the Single Sentence Rule.

Episode 5 of In Plain Cite deals with clemency. Our hosts, Jonathan and Ann, speak with Italia Patti, Justice Franklin D. Cleckley Fellow of the WV Innocence Project, and Deidre Purdy, a solo-practitioner on the Criminal Just Act panel in the Southern District of WV.

Episode 4 of In Plain Cite revisits Johnson, ACCA, 2255, and Guidelines. We also look at the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015 and other congressional initiatives. Finally, a preview of Supreme Court cases Hurst, Montgomery, Willams, Lockhart, Molina-Martinez, Ocasio, Musaccio, Taylor, and Strief.

Jonathan and Rachel discuss cell phones, cell towers, the 4th Amendment, the Stored Communications Act, and the pending cases of Graham and Davis.