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.






    May 21, 2013
    Supreme Court Grants Cert on Consent to Search Issue; Also Rules on Denial of Defense Claim

    Yesterday, the Supreme Court granted cert in Fernandez v. California (No. 12-7822).  The issue presented is whether, under Georgia v. Randolph, a defendant must be personally present and objecting when police officers ask a co-tenant for consent to conduct a warrantless search or whether a defendant’s previously stated objection, while physically present, to a warrantless search is a continuing assertion of 4th Amendment rights which cannot be overridden by a co-tenant.

    The Court also issued an opinion in Metrish v. Lancaster (No. 12-547), holding that because the Michigan Court of Appeals did not unreasonably apply clearly established federal law when it retroactively applied a decision of the Michigan Supreme Court rejecting the diminished-capacity defense to petitioner, he was not entitled to habeas relief.  For more on the opinion, see this SCOTUSblog post.




    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

 

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