There were three wins in the federal circuits last week, discussed below. The most interesting is probably United States v. Zabawa which gives a fair shake at sentencing to someone who assaulted an officer (who headbutted him).
It reminds me of a joke Bill Clinton liked to tell during the impeachment:
A kid comes home from school with a black eye. His mom asked what happened. The kid says, “Mom, it all started when the other guy hit back.”
Last week was a great week for folks appealing a federal conviction.
In United States v. Garrido and again in United States v. Cone fraud convictions were reversed by the Ninth Circuit and the Fourth Circuit. Separately, in the Ninth Circuit, a conviction was reversed and remanded for a Miranda violation in United States v. Barnes.
There was also a bit of news in the continuing budget problems plaguing federal defender’s offices – two federal judges wrote a nice op-ed in the Washington Post about the problem.
The Federal Criminal Appeals Blog