AH Datalytics has launched a “Real-Time” crime index, (RTCI), online. (access index). AH Datalytics launched the real-time crime index in an effort to “aid in the need for a faster understanding and visualization of national, state, and local crime trends.” AH Datalytics acknowledges certain crime data is under-reported to police and agencies can fail to provide complete or accurate information.
Man: The enhancement that led to my 13-year prison sentence finding pointing a gun meant I "physically restrained" the convenience store cashier is wrong. Eleventh Circuit: Not wrong. Concurrence 1: Not wrong, but only because of our dumb prior caselaw which we have to follow "even if we disagree with it or think that prior panels have overlooked important arguments." Concurrence 2: I welcome our new AI overlords' help in this case.
The United States Sentencing Commission releases new Quick Facts periodically, which give readers "basic facts about a single area of federal crime in an easy-top-read, two page format."
Quick Facts published in September include:
Today, the United States Sentencing Commission published Cyber Technology in Federal Crime (Sept. 18, 2024), which provides "demographic and sentencing information for individuals who used hacking, cryptocurrency, and the dark web in the commission of a federal offense."
Key Findings:
President Joe Biden secured the record for the highest number of openly LGBTQ judges appointed to the bench by any president when the U.S. Senate on Tuesday voted in favor of a military vet who spent years working as a prosecutor becoming a life-tenured judge in Philadelphia (access full article).
Ecuadoran national challenges his conviction for illegal reentry into the United States on the grounds that his initial removal was unlawful and the prohibition on reentry was enacted for super racist reasons. Second Circuit: His initial removal was lawful. And though the law's legislative history contains some shocking comments—heck, one legislator observed in 1952, "though I am not a follower of Hitler . . . there is something to it"—those views can't be attributed to all of Congress.
Leslie E. Scott has been selected to serve as the National Sentencing Resource Counsel’s new Director. Scott joined SRC in 2022. Prior to joining SRC, Scott worked in academia as an associate professor at the University of Detroit, Mercy School of Law. Scott also served our community as an assistant federal defender in the Western District of New York and a law clerk in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan and the D.C. Court of Appeals. Scott is an alumnus of the American University, Washington College of Law, and the University of Michigan.
Of the 64,124 cases reported to the United States Sentencing Commission in fiscal year 2023, 21,504 involved non-U.S. citizens. Non-U.S. citizens accounted for 33.7% of all individuals sentenced in fiscal year 2023.
This Government Accountability Office report provides publicly available information on incarcerations of non-citizens in the U.S., not just federal facilities.
Today, the Supreme Court agreed to hear another Texas death row inmate’s case challenging the state’s DNA testing statute as unconstitutional. Gutierrez v. Saenz, No. 23-7809 (Oct. 4, 2024) (cert. granted).
Today, the Supreme Court granted review in Esteras v. United States, in which the justices will address a circuit split over what factors judges can consider when sentencing a person for violating conditions of supervised release and if a court may consider factors that the supervised release law, 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e), does not mention.