Office of Defender Services
TRAINING BRANCH





The Office of Defender Services Training Branch furthers the right to effective assistance of counsel by providing training and other resources to attorneys appointed under the Criminal Justice Act.






    April 29, 2013
    Supreme Court to Determine Whether Distribution of Drugs Causing Death Is a Strict Liability Crime

    Today, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Burrage v. United States (No. 12-7515).  The questions presented are:

    1. Whether the crime of distribution of drugs causing death under 21 U.S.C. § 841 is a strict liability crime, without a foreseeability or proximate cause requirement.

    2. Whether a person can be convicted for distribution of heroin causing death utilizing jury instructions which allow a conviction when the heroin that was distributed “contributed to, ” death by “mixed drug intoxication,” but was not the sole cause of death of a person.

    The Court also dismissed Boyer v. Louisiana as improvidently granted.  The Court had granted cert on the question whether  "a state’s failure to fund counsel for an indigent defendant for five years, particularly where failure was the direct result of the prosecution’s choice to seek the death penalty, should be weighed against the state for speedy trial purposes."


    April 23, 2013
    Supreme Court Holds That Minor Marijuana Offense Is Not an Aggravated Felony Under INA

    In Moncrieffe v. Holder (No. 11-702) the Supreme Court held today that a state conviction for possession with intent to distribute (for no remuneration) a small amount of marijuana does not constitute “illicit trafficking in a controlled substance” under section 1101(a)(43) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and is thus not an aggravated felony subjecting a noncitizen to mandatory deportation and ineligibility for certain forms of discretionary relief.
    Full story

    April 23, 2013
    Sentencing Resource Counsel Rebut Sentencing Commission's Booker Report

    In December 2012 the Commission issued its Report on the Continuing Impact of United States v. Booker on Federal Sentencing. In a series of articles and fact sheets, Sentencing Resource Counsel have rebutted various claims made in the Commission's Report. Click on the Full Story link to access the materials.
    Full story

    April 17, 2013
    Supreme Court Rejects Blanket Fourth Amendment Exigency Exception for Warrantless DUI Blood Tests

    In a decision handed down today in Missouri v. McNeely (No. 11-1425), the Supreme Court held that the natural metabolization of alcohol in the bloodstream does not present a per se exigency that justifies an exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement for nonconsensual blood testing in all drunk-driving cases.  Instead, "exigency in this context must be determined case by case based on the totality of the circumstances."  For an analysis of the opinion see this SCOTUSblog post.


    April 12, 2013
    Sentencing Commission Votes to Promulgate Amendments to Guidelines

    On April 10, 2013, the Sentencing Commission voted to promulgate Amendments to the sentencing guidelines. These Amendments will be submitted to Congress by May 1, 2013. Barring congressional action, they will take effect November 1, 2013. For the full text of the Amendments see the Reader-Friendly Version. For an explantion of the changes made by the Amendments read this Summary of 2013 Proposed Amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines by the Sentencing Resource Counsel Project, and Defender Letter to the Sentencing Commission Commenting on the Commission's Proposed Amendments.


    March 26, 2013
    Supreme Court Holds That Using a Drug Sniff Dog at the Front Door of A Home Constitutes a Search

    Today, the Supreme Court issued a decision in Florida v. Jardines (No. 11-564), holding that "The government's use of trained police dogs to investigate the home and its immediate surroundings is a 'search' within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment." 

    Full story

    February 26, 2013
    Supreme Court to Address Duties of Attorneys in Plea Bargaining; Admissibility of Evidence Challenging Mental Incapacity Defense

    Yesterday, the Court granted certiorari in Burt v. Titlow (No. 12-414) and Kansas v. Cheever (No. 12-609). 

    The issues presented in Burt v. Titlow are: (1) Whether the Sixth Circuit failed to give appropriate deference to a Michigan state court under Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA) in holding that defense counsel was constitutionally ineffective for allowing respondent to maintain his claim of innocence; (2) whether a convicted defendant’s subjective testimony that he would have accepted a plea but for ineffective assistance, is, standing alone, sufficient to demonstrate a reasonable probability that defendant would have accepted the plea; and (3) whether Lafler v. Cooper always requires a state trial court to resentence a defendant who shows a reasonable probability that he would have accepted a plea offer but for ineffective assistance, and to do so in such a way as to “remedy” the violation of the defendant’s constitutional right.

    In Cheever, the issues presented are:  (1) Whether, when a criminal defendant who affirmatively introduces expert testimony that he lacked the requisite mental state to commit capital murder of a law enforcement officer due to the alleged temporary and long-term effects of the defendant’s methamphetamine use, the state violates the defendant’s Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination by rebutting the defendant’s mental state defense with evidence from a court-ordered mental evaluation of the defendant; and (2) whether, when a criminal defendant testifies in his own defense, the state violates the Fifth Amendment by impeaching such testimony with evidence from a court-ordered mental evaluation of the defendant.

    For more on the cases see this SCOTUSblog post.




    February 22, 2013
    Supreme Court Hands Down Opinions in 6 Cases of Interest to Criminal Defense Practitioners

    Earlier this week the Supreme Court issued opinions addressing Fourth Amendment challenges to drug sniffing dogs (Florida v. Harris, No. 11-817) and to the detention of an individual incident to a search warrant (Bailey v. United States, No. 11-770); the retroactivity of Padilla v. Kentucky (Chaidez v. United States, No. 11-820); the definition of plain error under Rule 52(b) (Henderson v. United States, No. 11-9307); Double Jeopardy (Evans v. Michigan, No. 11-1327); and when a federal habeas claim has been adjudicated by a state court (Johnson v. Williams No. 11-465).

    Full story

 

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