BLOG BULLETS: The Smarter Sentencing Act, which would cut drug mandatory minimum sentences in half, has been reintroduced in this year’s Congress. There’s also a bill named the “Justice Safety Valve Act,” which would allow a court to sentence below a mandatory minimum sentence whenever it’s “necessary to do so in order to […]

   BLOG BULLETS:  While the “rule of completeness” in Rule 106 doesn’t allow a defendant generally to introduce the remainder of his statement when the government introduces just part of the statement, case law supports an argument that the defendant does have a right to introduce those parts that are necessary to put the part […]

BLOG BULLETS: Recent cases make clear that the burden is on the government to show prior offenses were “committed on occasions different from one another” for purposes of the Armed Career Criminal Act enhancement. The cases also make clear that the only evidence the government can use to show this are those records which can […]