BLOG BULLETS: A recent Ninth Circuit opinion confirms two opinions from several years ago holding that Rule 16’s right to discovery of items “material to preparing the defense” isn’t limited to admissible evidence, sets a very low threshold, and includes evidence that affects choice of defenses, witness preparation, and other such things. The opinion also […]

BLOG BULLETS: Another unpublished Ninth Circuit opinion has held the Arizona drug statutes overbroad and indivisible and so not subject to the modified categorical approach. You can look to this case, along with another similar case earlier this year, for guidance in challenging the divisibility of other states’ drug statutes.   NOW THE BLOG: I’ve […]

BLOG BULLETS: The Ninth Circuit has granted en banc review in a case raising the question of whether the California drug statutes, which have already been held to be overbroad under the categorical approach, are indivisible so the modified categorical approach can’t be used. One issue presented in this case is whether the California sale/transportation […]

BLOG  BULLETS: You can argue for an adjustment to the statutory mandatory minimum for time served on another sentence for related conduct even when the other sentence has been completed. The reasoning in cases from other circuits that reject such an adjustment overlook a parallel guideline provision, brush past the question of what makes up […]

BLOG BULLETS: A recent Sentencing Commission report on the career offender guideline supports an argument that the guideline is not a product of Sentencing Commission research and expertise, and so not deserving of any deference for that reason. The report (a) confirms the guideline is solely the product of a Congressional directive; (b) has the […]

BLOG BULLETS: A Tenth Circuit case supports the argument that the California drug statutes aren’t divisible and the holding to the contrary in Coronado v. Holder, 759 F.3d 977 (9th Cir. 2014), is wrong. The Tenth Circuit case does hold Coronado’s ultimate holding was correct, but it bases that holding on a conclusion that jury […]

In a post I put up at the beginning of the month, I suggested the Supreme Court’s recent Mathis decision raised doubt about the Ninth Circuit’s holding in Coronado v. Holder, 759 F.3d 977 (9th Cir. 2014), that the California drug statutes are divisible.  (See “Mathis May Open Up More Doors Than You Think” in […]

BLOG BULLETS: The new amendment narrowing the “crime of violence” definition in the career offender guideline took effect August 1. The amendment eliminates burglary of a dwelling from the definition, eliminates the residual clause, and narrows the definition of extortion in a way that probably undercuts a prior Ninth Circuit decision in United States v. […]

BLOG BULLETS: Mathis not only upholds Rendon but raises doubt about the Ninth Circuit’s holding in Coronado v. Holder, 759 F.3d 977 (9th Cir. 2014), that the overbroad California drug statutes are divisible. One line of attack is Mathis’s citation of California Penal Code § 952 as an example of a state statute which courts […]

BLOG BULLETS: In its recent decision in Mathis v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 2243 (2016), the Supreme Court has agreed with the Ninth Circuit that a list of alternatives makes a statute divisible only if the alternatives are elements between which a jury has to unanimously choose. Mathis reiterates the categorical approach’s focus on […]