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Criminal Defense Articles
Felonies
Felonies are the most serious types of crimes under U.S. criminal law. A standard definition of a felony is any crime punishable by more than one year in prison or by death. This means that any crime that has a sentence of only a fine or confinement in the local jail is not a felony. In some cases, state codes may label a crime a "gross" or "aggravated" misdemeanor but provide for a sentence of more than one year in the state penitentiary system, thereby ensuring that the misdemeanor is treated as a felony in many respects.
Should I Agree to a Plea Bargain?
The vast majority of criminal cases — over 90 percent — are resolved through plea bargain. Plea bargains occur when the defense and the prosecution reach an agreement, which usually entails the defendant agreeing to plead guilty or no contest in exchange for a lesser charge or a lighter sentence. The agreement is then presented to the judge for consideration, and if the judge feels that the resolution is fair to all parties, he or she will make it official.
Criminal Law & Procedure Case Summaries
[02/06] US v. Reyes-Bonilla
In a prosecution for being a deported alien found in the United States without permission, the conviction is affirmed, where: 1) the defendant was deprived of the opportunity for judicial review of his prior removal order, and was exempt from the administrative-remedies exhaustion requirement because did not validly waive his right of appeal; and 2) the defendant was not properly advised of his due process right to counsel nor did he waive this right; but 3) this due process violation was not per se prejudicial; and 4) the defendant could not demonstrate that he had a plausible claim to relief at the time of removal proceedings, so he was not actually prejudiced as a result of the due process violations, and entry of the removal order was not fundamentally unfair.
[02/06] Richardson v. Branker
On a petition for writ of habeas corpus under 28 USC section 2254, the district court's judgment is: 1) reversed, insofar as it granted the petition, where the district court erred in considering the petitioner’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel under a de novo standard of review, and the state court did not hold unreasonably that the petitioner failed to demonstrate prejudice under Strickland; and 2) affirmed, insofar as it awarded summary judgment against the petitioner on his claims that the state withheld exculpatory evidence from him before trial, and that because he was mentally retarded, his sentence of death violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments.
[02/03] US v. Mahin
In a prosecution on two counts of possessing a firearm or ammunition while subject to a domestic violence protective order in violation of 18 USC section 922(g)(8), the judgment of conviction is: 1) affirmed in part, where the statute and its application to the defendant's firearm use the same day he was served with a protective order did not violate the Second Amendment under the intermediate scrutiny standard; and 2) reversed in part and remanded for resentencing, where it was plain error to convict and sentence the defendant on two separate counts for the simultaneous possession of a firearm and ammunition under section 922(g)(8).
[02/03] People v. Gabriel
On appeal from conviction on charges of cultivation and possession of marijuana and other offenses, the judgment is affirmed, where: 1) the trial court did not err in allowing the prosecution to impeach the defendant's credibility with evidence of his prior convictions for possession of an assault weapon and cultivation of marijuana, inasmuch as each of those offenses is a crime involving moral turpitude; and 2) any error in admitting the prior convictions evidence would have been harmless error, as it would not have resulted in prejudice requiring reversal.
Criminal Defense Frequently Asked Questions
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