Today, we have another post from Dan Broderick, who did a guest post four weeks ago (see “Intent to Defraud Is Misdefined in the Ninth Circuit Model Instructions,” linked at the right). Dan’s post this week is on another element of the fraud instructions – the element of materiality. BLOG BULLETS: False statements qualify as […]

BLOG BULLETS: A recent Ninth Circuit opinion narrowly reads Aguila-Montes de Oca Only facts necessary to the factual basis for the plea on which a prior conviction is based can be considered under the modified categorical approach It’s not what the defendant did but what he was convicted of that matters. NOW THE BLOG: Before […]

BLOG BULLETS: Charges of alternative ways of committing a crime require proof of just one of the alternatives even when the charge is in the conjunctive, so a plea admits only one of the alternatives alleged, not every one. This means the prior conviction doesn’t qualify under the categorical approach for evaluating prior convictions for […]

BLOG BULLETS: Present Ninth Circuit law allows courts to apply the “modified categorical approach” not just to divisible statutes that define multiple crimes or ways of committing a crime, but to any statute. But there’s a split in the circuits and the Supreme Court just granted cert on the issue. So preserve the issue with […]

This week we have a guest post from Dan Broderick, the head of the Federal Public Defender office in Sacramento. Though Dan was briefly an AUSA in Los Angeles (back when I started at the Federal Public Defender’s office, actually), he saw the light after a few years and has been a defender for going […]