Justia Constitutional Law Opinion Summaries

Defendant Blake Snowden pleaded guilty to unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer and to intercepting emails. In calculating his offense level under the sentencing guidelines, the district court applied a 16-level enhancement after finding that these crimes caused losses exceeding a million dollars. The resulting guideline sentencing range was 41–51 months’ imprisonment. The court ultimately imposed a 30-month sentence. Defendant argues that the district court erred in calculating loss and thereby arrived at an unduly high guideline sentencing range. After review, the Tenth Circuit concluded that if there was any error, it was harmless because it did not affect the sentence: the trial court, after thoroughly exploring the matter, explained why the sentence was proper under 18 U.S.C. 3553 and unequivocally stated that it would impose the same sentence even if 30 months exceeded the correct guideline range. On one ground, however, the Tenth Circuit reversed: the district court ordered restitution in the amount of $25,354. Both parties agreed that this was an oversight that should have been corrected on remand to $24,174. View "United States v. Snowden" on Justia Law

Defendant-appellants Iqbal Makkar and Gaurav Sehgal ran the “Gitter Done,” a small town convenience store in northeastern Oklahoma. Questions surfaced about a certain incense they carried on their shelves. The men spoke with state law enforcement officers, offered to have the officers test the incense to determine its legality, and offered as well to stop selling the product until the results came in. Ultimately they were indicted and convicted for violating the Controlled Substance Analogue Enforcement Act (Analogue Act), conspiracy, and money laundering. In this appeal defendants argued that the trial court erred in instructing the jury, and for excluding evidence of their cooperation with law enforcement. “The government’s instructional inference invited the jury to infer the presence of one essential element from another, effectively collapsing two independent statutory inquiries into one. … the fact that one drug produces a similar effect to a second drug just doesn’t give rise to a rational inference - let alone rationally suggest beyond a reasonable doubt - that the first drug shares a similar chemical structure with the second drug. And it most certainly does not give rise to a qualifying inference that the first drug shares a similar chemical structure with a third drug - as the government was, in fact, allowed to argue to the jury in this case.” The government argued this error was harmless, but the Tenth Circuit disagreed and vacated both defendants’ convictions. View "United States v. Makkar" on Justia Law

A federal grand jury indicted inmate Mark Jordan for the 1999 murder of David Stone and three related assaults. Stone died after he was stabbed three times with a shank in the recreation yard at the United States Penitentiary in Florence, Colorado (“USP Florence”). In 2005, a jury found him guilty on all counts. In 2012, Sean Riker, another inmate who was present in the prison recreation yard that day, confessed to stabbing Stone and agreed to provide Jordan’s counsel a DNA sample. Jordan’s DNA expert then linked Riker’s DNA to DNA found on the murder weapon. Based on Riker’s confession and the new DNA analysis, Jordan moved for a new trial under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 33 due to newly discovered evidence. After the conclusion of the Rule 33 hearing, the district court denied Jordan’s motion for a new trial. On appeal, Jordan argued: (1) the district court should not have admitted and considered new government evidence; and (2) even if Rule 33 permits new government evidence, the Federal Rules of Evidence and the Confrontation Clause each should have barred admission of Stone’s dying declarations. Finding no reversible error, the Tenth Circuit affirmed. View "United States v. Jordan" on Justia Law

Delray Quiver pled guilty to assaulting, resisting, and injuring a federal officer. At sentencing, the district court applied a four-level Sentencing Guidelines enhancement for Quiver’s “use” of a “dangerous weapon” (the officer’s Taser) during the assault. Quiver appealed the application of the enhancement. As the officer tried to subdue Quiver to arrest him, Quiver managed to turn over and punch the officer in the face, breaking his glasses. During the ensuing struggle, Quiver took control of the Taser and drive-stunned the officer’s leg. Quiver’s pressing the Taser against the officer’s thigh left two burn marks. The Tenth Circuit concluded that the Taser, even in stun-mode, was a dangerous weapon. The Court also concluded that in Quiver momentarily taking control of the Taser, he “used” it against the officer. For these simple reasons, the Tenth Circuit agreed with the district court’s conclusion that the four-level enhancement applied. View "United States v. Quiver" on Justia Law

These consolidated cases arose from a sting operation designed to determine if police officers in the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department’s (KCKPD) “SCORE” Unit were stealing from residences while executing search warrants. As a result of the sting operation, three officers were indicted and pled guilty to federal crimes. The remaining officers brought claims under 42 U.S.C. 1983, asserting violations of their Fourth Amendment rights for arrests without probable cause. The individual Defendants-Appellants appealed the district court’s denial of their motions for summary judgment based upon qualified immunity. The entity Defendant-Appellant (Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City) also appealed, arguing that should the Tenth Circuit determine a constitutional violation did not occur, it should reverse and render judgment in its favor. After review, the Tenth Circuit reversed the district court’s denial of qualified immunity on the basis that the law was not clearly established at the time of the arrests in question. The Court dismissed the Unified Government’s appeal for lack of jurisdiction. View "Callahan v. Unified Govt of Wyandotte" on Justia Law

In July 2005, defendant-appellant Laura Wetzel-Sanders pled guilty to one count of bank robbery. For purposes of sentencing, she was deemed a career offender based upon a 2000 Kansas state conviction for criminal threat (for which she received a seven-month sentence) and a 2002 federal conviction for bank robbery (for which she received an 18-month sentence). On appeal to the Tenth Circuit, defendant argued that she was sentenced on materially incorrect information: that after the Court’s decision in “United States v. Brooks,” (751 F.3d 1204 (10th Cir. 2014)), defendant’s state criminal threat conviction did not qualify as a predicate offense for purposes of applying the career-offender guideline. The Tenth Circuit reversed, finding that this appeal was defendant’s third successive section 2255 motion, and that the district court lacked jurisdiction to hear it. The Tenth Circuit vacated the district court’s order on the merits and dismissed the appeal. View "United States v. Wetzel-Sanders" on Justia Law

Walter Flaugher pled guilty in 2006 to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, for which he was sentenced to 57 months in prison and 5 years of supervised release. In 2014, the U.S. Probation Office filed a petition to revoke his supervised release, alleging several violations. Flaugher stipulated to one of the violations, use of methamphetamine. The district court revoked his supervised release, resentenced him to another 12 months and 1 day in prison, and imposed 3 years of supervised release. Over his counsel’s objections, the court also imposed a condition to the supervised release, requiring Flaugher to be subject to a search of his house, car or person, by a probation officer. On appeal, Flaugher argued that 18 U.S.C. 3583(d) prohibited district courts from imposing warrantless-search conditions except in cases involving felons required to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”). He challenged the condition because he was not required to register under SORNA. Finding no reversible error, the Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court. View "United States v. Flaugher" on Justia Law

Petitioner-Appellant Shelton Jackson appealed the denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus challenging his conviction and death sentence. In 1997, Jackson was charged with the murder of Monica Decator in Tulsa, Oklahoma and was subsequently convicted and sentenced to death. Jackson raised three issues on appeal: (1) whether the state court’s submission to the jury of an allegedly invalid sentencing aggravator unconstitutionally skewed the jury’s deliberations during the penalty phase of his trial; (2) whether his defense lawyers provided constitutionally deficient representation during the penalty phase; and (3) whether the combined effect of these two errors warrants habeas relief even if, viewed individually, each error is harmless. Finding no reversible error, the Tenth Circuit affirmed. View "Jackson v. Warrior" on Justia Law

The Government appealed the district court's grant of defendant-appellee Zachary Krueger motion to suppress evidence seized in Oklahoma pursuant to a warrant issued by a magistrate judge in Kansas. Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”) learned that child pornography was being distributed over the internet from an IP address registered to Krueger, a Kansas resident. An HSI agent thereafter obtained a warrant from a United States magistrate judge in the District of Kansas to search Krueger’s Kansas residence for items such as computers and cell phones that may be used to depict child pornography visually. Upon executing the warrant, the agent discovered that Krueger was not home and that his computer and cell phone were not in the residence. Krueger’s roommate, who was present at the time, indicated that Krueger was in Oklahoma City visiting a friend, and that Krueger may have taken his computer and cell phone with him to Oklahoma. Based on this information, the Kansas-based HSI agent asked an Oklahoma-based HSI agent to verify Krueger’s whereabouts and execute a second warrant, obtained from a different United States magistrate judge in the District of Kansas. This warrant authorized law enforcement to search both the Oklahoma residence and Krueger’s automobile parked outside the Oklahoma residence for electronic devices belonging to Krueger or in his possession. Krueger was present when the agents executed the second warrant, and they seized (among other things) Krueger’s computer and external hard drive. In granting Krueger’s motion to suppress this evidence, the district court concluded that suppression was necessary because: (1) the warrant violated Fed. R. Crim. P. 41, which generally limits a federal magistrate judge’s warrant-issuing authority to the district where he or she sits; and (2) Krueger established that he was prejudiced by the Rule 41 violation. On appeal, the Government argued that reversal was necessary because the district court applied the wrong legal standard in determining that Krueger established prejudice. Finding no reversible error, the Tenth Circuit affirmed the suppression order. View "United States v. Krueger" on Justia Law

Defendant-appellant Jesus Ibarra-Diaz appealed his possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine conviction, arguing: (1) the district court violated his Sixth Amendment confrontation rights by admitting various statements of testimonial hearsay at trial; (2) he was unfairly prejudiced by the admission of inflammatory testimony from the government’s key witness; (3) he was deprived of a unanimous jury verdict by an allegedly duplicitous indictment; and (4) there was insufficient evidence produced at trial to support his conviction. Taking each argument in turn, the Tenth Circuit rejected defendant’s arguments on appeal and affirmed his conviction. View "United States v. Ibarra-Diaz" on Justia Law