Articles Posted in U.S. Supreme Court

The Supreme Court today issued one of the two dog cases on its docket, Florida v. Harris. Recall that we blogged on this case when it was accepted for review. In today’s unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court held that just because there are no performance records for how a dog does in the field, this by itself does not mean that a dog’s positive alert cannot form the basis for a probable cause search.

The pooch in this case is “Aldo.” His handler obviously had it out for Mr. Harris. The officer stopped Harris two times, and had Aldo run around the truck, sniffing for the odors of dope, etc. The first time, Aldo “alerted”, but the officer did not find any of the substances for which the dog was trained to alert. However, they did find chemicals used to make methamphetamine, so they arrested Harris. The same officer again stopped Harris while the latter was out on bail. Once again, the loyal pooch ran around the vehicle, again alerted, but this time no illegal substances or precursors were discovered.
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Well it’s early October, a beautiful time of year here in Atlanta, and also the time when the United States Supreme Court kicks off its new “term.” There are a couple of cases of interest that the Supreme Court will decide in the upcoming term. I will focus on cases that impact our federal and state criminal matters. We will start with one case today, and look at the others in subsequent posts.

First, we have Bailey v. United States. This is an old-fashioned Fourth Amendment appeal, arising out of the execution of a search warrant. Thirty-one years ago, the Supreme Court issued a decision called Michigan v. Summers. In that case, the Supreme Court decided that officers executing a search warrant for contraband may detain the occupants of the premises while the search is conducted. In the past three decades, a substantial conflict has developed among federal courts of appeals and state courts of last resort on the question of whether the rule of Summers extends to the detention of an individual who has left the immediate vicinity of the premises before the warrant is executed. The Supreme Court will hear the Bailey case to clear up this conflict among the lower courts.
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In criminal trials throughout the United States, whether here in Atlanta or elsewhere, the Sixth Amendment’s Confrontation Clause protects defendants from being convicted based on out-of-court statements by people who never show up to testify. The Confrontation Clause means what it says, our clients can “confront” the evidence against them and prosecutors should not be allowed to put up one person to say what some other person told him or her. However, the Supreme Court’s relatively recent decision in Michigan v. Bryant is a step backward and lets prosecutors get convictions even when the accuser never gets on the witness stand.

In Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004), the Supreme Court ruled that the Confrontation Clause is violated when a prosecutor uses hearsay which is “testimonial,” the hearsay is admitted against a criminal defendant, and the hearsay declarant does not testify at the defendant’s trial. The Court in Crawford used various formulations of the term “testimonial.” Now, the most commonly adopted version defines a “testimonial” statement as one that “was made under circumstances which would lead an objectively reasonable declarant to believe or anticipate that the statement would be available for use against an accused at a later trial.” The Supreme Court later expanded upon this analysis in Davis v. Washington, 547 U.S. 813 (2004), finding that “Statements are nontestimonial when made in the course of police interrogation under circumstances objectively indicating that the primary purpose of the interrogation is to enable police assistance to meet an ongoing emergency. They are testimonial when the circumstances objectively indicate that there is no such ongoing emergency, and that the primary purpose of the interrogation is to establish or prove past events potentially relevant to later criminal prosecution.”

The basics facts in the recent Bryant case are that police found Anthony Covington in a gas station parking lot. Covington claimed he had been shot by Richard Bryant outside Bryant’s house. Covington’s story was that he had then driven himself to the parking lot. Covington died as a result of his wounds, and the prosecution introduced his statements concerning his shooting at Bryant’s murder trial.

We represent a lot of criminal defendants in federal courts, many here in Atlanta but also throughout Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida and other states. Since 2005, such criminal defendants have had good luck in the United States Supreme Court when challenging various aspects of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. One more such success took place on March 2, 2011 when the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Pepper v. United States.

Readers will recall that like most criminal defense attorneys who specialize in federal cases, I have railed against the Sentencing Guidelines since their inception in 1987. These mechanical rules turned judges into soulless automatons, who were reduced to calculating various complex formulae when imposing a prison sentence on the human being standing in court. In 2005, the famous Booker decision held that the Guidelines are unconstitutional, and the only way to “save” them was to hold that these rules are no longer mandatory, but are merely “advisory.” After Booker, judges began using their new-found freedom to impose shorter sentences than otherwise called for by the Guidelines. In a series of cases in the ensuing years, the Supreme Court ruled that a judge who gives a below-Guidelines sentence should be afforded great deference, and sentencing judges could even impose lower sentences based on policy disagreements with particular aspects of the Guidelines.

Then came Mr. Pepper’s case. His judge used this new sentencing freedom to impose a 24-month sentence, far below what the Guidelines called for. The prosecutors appealed, and the Eighth Circuit agreed with them, sending the matter back for a new sentencing hearing. Along the way, Mr. Pepper had completed a lengthy drug treatment program, and got out from the 24-month sentence 3 days after the case was sent back for a new sentencing hearing.

This Monday the federal Supreme Court issued its opinion in Abbott v. United States, together with Gould v. United States. The Court held 8-0 (Justice Kagan took no part in the decision) that a defendant is subject to the highest mandatory minimum sentence specified in § 924(c) unless another provision of law directed to conduct proscribed by that subsection imposes an even greater minimum. We are disappointed that the Court disregarded the plain language of the statute.

As we discussed in this post when the Court granted certiorari, § 924(c) contains a prefatory clause, called the “except” clause, that applies the subsection “[e]xcept to the extent that a greater minimum sentence is otherwise provided by this subsection or by any other provision of law.” We read that clause as plainly prohibiting the application of § 924(c) where “any other” greater minimum sentence applies. The government disagreed, arguing that the clause is triggered only when another provision commands a longer term for conduct that violates §924(c).

Gould argued the plain language of the clause: that it applied whenever any count of conviction at sentencing required a greater minimum sentence. Abbott proposed two potential happy mediums: that the minimum sentence “otherwise provided” must be one imposed for the §924(c) predicate crime or, in the alternative, for a firearm offense involving the same firearm that triggered §924(c). The Court rejected all three arguments.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Davis v. United States. The Court will resolve a federal circuit court split: whether the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule applies to a search that is later ruled unconstitutional. This March, the Eleventh Circuit held in Davis that the exclusionary rule does not apply when the police conduct a search reasonably relying on well-settled precedent, even if that precedent is later overturned. We hope the Court reverses this decision.

In Davis, the defendant was a passenger in a routine traffic stop in Alabama. He gave the police officers a false name. When asked to exit the vehicle, Davis removed his jacket and left it in the car, then was taken toward a group of bystanders. The bystanders provided his real name, leading to Davis’s arrest for giving a false name. In the search incident to his arrest, the officers found a gun in the jacket, which was still in the car. Davis was convicted of possession of a firearm and sentenced to more than 18 years.

As we explained in this post, the Supreme Court decided Arizona v. Gant in April 2009. The Court held that police are authorized “to search a vehicle incident to a recent occupant’s arrest only when the arrestee is unsecured and within reaching distance of the passenger compartment at the time of the search,” unless some evidence related to the crime of arrest may be in the vehicle. This decision rendered the search in Davis unconstitutional.

The United States Supreme Court announced last month that it will review a case involving the “exigent circumstances” exception to the Constitution’s requirement that the police get a search warrant before conducting a search or seizing property. We regularly confront similar matters when we litigate federal cases here in Georgia, Alabama and Florida and when one of these cases is taken up to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. This case, Kentucky v. King, likely will clear up whether this particular exception to the warrant requirement can apply when the police themselves create the exigency that otherwise mandates that they act before getting a search warrant.

The police chased a suspected drug dealer into a hallway where he could have entered one of two doors. A strong smell of marijuana came from one of the doors. The officers knocked on that door and announced their presence, after which they heard sounds consistent with destruction of evidence. They then broke open the door, discovering drugs and the unfortunate Mr. King inside.

Our Constitution says that it is unreasonable to conduct a search and seizure unless a judicial officer has issued a warrant. Over the years, the courts have created so many exceptions to the warrant requirement that it looks more like Swiss cheese than a rule to protect privacy. The “exigent circumstances” exception means that the police get to break down doors without a warrant if there is some immediate need to act, for example when persons inside are destroying evidence, someone inside needs immediate help, or there is an immediate danger to the police coming from inside the residence. However, over the years the police have gotten smart and often create the exigent circumstance that lets them get around the warrant requirement. The courts have reacted to these situations in a variety of ways.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court announced its decision in Dolan v. United States, resolving a circuit court split. This decision abrogates U.S. v. Maung, a 2001 Eleventh Circuit case that held that a federal court imposing a criminal sentence lacks the authority to enter a restitution order after the 90-day deadline has expired. The Supreme Court held that, at least where the sentencing court clearly advised before the deadline that it would order restitution, that court may order the specific amount after the deadline has expired.

The majority opinion by Justice Breyer is available here, along with a dissenting opinion by Chief Justice Roberts, joined by Justices Stevens, Scalia, and Kennedy.

Last Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States reversed the Eleventh Circuit‘s decision in Holland v. Florida. The Court held, as have all Courts of Appeal, that the AEDPA‘s statute of limitations in habeas corpus cases is subject to equitable tolling. The Court further held that the Eleventh Circuit’s per se rule regarding when such equitable tolling applies is “too rigid.” The Court reversed and remanded without explaining a precise standard for when equitable tolling should apply.

In determining that equitable tolling is available, the Court reasoned that the AEDPA’s statute of limitations is nonjurisdictional and such statutes of limitations are normally subject to a rebuttable presumption in favor of equitable tolling. In addition, equitable principles have traditionally governed the law regarding habeas corpus. The Court distinguished cases in which nonjurisdictional statutes of limitations were interpreted as not subject to equitable tolling.

The Court then explained that, for equitable tolling to be available, a petitioner must show diligence in pursuing his rights and some extraordinary circumstance that prevented timely filing. Emphasizing that equity requires decisions on a case-by-case basis, flexibility, and avoidance of mechanical rules, the Court pointed out that equity’s intent is relief from hardships resulting from “evils of archaic rigidity.”

This morning, the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in Barber v. Thomas. In a 6-3 decision, the Court held that the calculation method used by the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to determine the amount of “good time” earned on federal criminal sentences is lawful. The Court rejected two other methods for calculating good time, one proposed by federal prisoners and one suggested by the dissenting justices. As a result of this holding, the taxpayers will be forced to continue paying for prisoners longer than Congress may have wanted.

This case involved the interpretation of 18 U.S.C. § 3624(b)(1), which states:

[A] prisoner who is serving a term of imprisonment of more than 1 year other than a term of imprisonment for the duration of the prisoner’s life, may receive credit toward the service of the prisoner’s sentence, beyond the time served, of up to 54 days at the end of each year of the prisoner’s term of imprisonment, beginning at the end of the first year of the term, subject to determination by the Bureau of Prisons that, during that year, the prisoner has displayed exemplary compliance with institutional disciplinary regulations. … [C]redit for the last year or portion of a year of the term of imprisonment shall be prorated and credited within the last six weeks of the sentence.

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