by Dale Chappell
In my first column in this series on federal habeas corpus for state and federal prisoners, we’ll go over time limits for filing in federal court and how those time limits are calculated. The following information is adapted from my book WinningCites: Section 2255, A Handbook for ...
by Dale Chappell
Within weeks, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth and Fifth Circuits opened the doors on two decades-old cases, allowing the possibility for habeas corpus relief based on withheld evidence by prosecutors and law enforcement that likely led to wrongful convictions.
The Fifth Circuit Case
The ...
by Dale Chappell
More than half of the cases where innocent people were wrongfully prosecuted and imprisoned over the last three decades involved misconduct by the police and/or prosecutors. This comes from a new report by the National Registry of Exonerations (“NRE”) released in September 2020, compiling data on every ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held on August 21, 2020, that it’s not up to the Government to determine whether a defendant qualifies for a reduced sentence under the safety valve provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f). Instead, the Court reminded, it ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held on September 15, 2020, that when a district court determines that a person is eligible for sentencing relief under the First Step Act, the court must consider all the applicable sentencing factors under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held on September 25, 2020, that the outdated compassionate release guideline under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 1B1.13, Application Note 1(D) (“Application Note 1(D)”), doesn’t control when a compassionate release motion is filed by a federal prisoner, rather ...
by Dale Chappell
Yes, it’s true: Oregon voted to decriminalize personal possession of recreational drugs, including heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and others this past Election Day. It’s an effort to stop “penalizing addiction,” the new law says, and to focus on treatment instead of jail for addicts.
Known on the ballot ...
by Dale Chappell
In this final column based on my book, WinningCites: Attacking the Guilty Plea, we’ll go over how plea waivers and breaches of plea agreements impact challenging a guilty plea, and we’ll also dig into one of the most-asked questions I hear: Can I get more time ...
by Dale Chappell
A powerful new database combines data from multiple sources in order to provide more useful information about federal sentencing.
The ground-breaking service is a first of its kind and has been an eye-opener about what’s really going on in federal sentencing.
This new tool is called JUSTFAIR ...
by Dale Chappell
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held on August 20, 2020, that appellate counsel’s failure to raise a “clearly foreshadowed” change in decisional law that would’ve led to a likely change in the outcome was ineffective assistance of counsel (“IAC”) sufficient to excuse procedural ...
