Sex Offender Registration and Notification conviction vacated

CRIMINAL LAW & PROCEDURE, SENTENCING
U.S. v. Sanchez, No. 07-30578
Where, at the time of sentencing there is no guideline in effect for the particular offense of conviction, and the Sentencing Commission has promulgated a proposed guideline applicable to the offense of conviction, the district court's failure to consider the proposed guideline when sentencing the defendant may result in reversible plain error. The imposition of a 60-month sentence for defendant's failure to register pursuant to the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) is vacated and remanded where: 1) the court's failure to consider proposed guidelines that existed at the time before sentencing constituted plain error; and 2) defendant's right were affected since he could show that but for the misapplication of the Guidelines he could have received a lesser sentence. Read more...

the district court needed to review the state trial court record

CRIMINAL LAW & PROCEDURE, EVIDENCE, HABEAS CORPUS
Ferguson v. Culliver, No. 07-13030
Denial of petitioner's 28 U.S.C. section 2254 habeas corpus petition is vacated and remanded where: 1) in the habeas context, the district court needed to review the state trial court record, rather than rely solely on the state appellate court's findings as to what the trial record contained; and 2) the absence of the trial record precluded the district court from conducting a meaningful review of the state court decision, even under the deferential standard imposed by the AEDPA. Read more...

insufficient evidence

US v. Moore, No. 07-10237
Convictions of multiple counts of theft of government property are reversed as there was insufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to have found beyond a reasonable doubt that defendants, husband and wife, knew that they were not entitled to continue receiving VA benefits that husband's mother had been receiving before she died.

21 U.S.C. section 860(a)

US v. Powell, No. 05-3202
Conviction for violating 21 U.S.C. section 860(a), which enhances a sentence for drug offenses occurring within 1000 feet of a public or private elementary, vocational, or secondary school or a public or private college, junior college, or university, is vacated where the government concedes did not present evidence to show that the school near the intersection where the police arrested defendant was of a type covered by section 860(a)

court erred in imposing a condition of supervised release tolling the term of release while defendant is outside the United States

US v. Catalan, No. 06-5259
A conviction for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and for the underlying possession is affirmed over a claim of insufficient evidence, but the sentence is vacated where the district court erred in imposing a condition of supervised release tolling the term of release while defendant is outside the United States.