In U.S. v. John Doe the 11th Circuit came down on the side of a person’s Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself. Doe was held in civil contempt for failing to comply with a subpoena duces tecum requiring him to appear before a grand jury and produce the unencrypted…
Sanders was convicted of distributing cocaine after he was stopped by Georgia State Patrol driving a tractor trailer containing 153 kilograms of cocaine. After giving consent to the search of the truck, officers found cocaine hidden in the trailer hidden inside a pallet of rotting cabbage. At trial, the jury…
In this unusual result, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal reversed a conviction and dismissed the case because it found the government would be legally barred from proving a crucial element of the offense. The defendant in U.S. v Valdiviez-Garza was convicted in the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Florida,…
The Defendant in U.S. v Ignasiak was a medical doctor convicted of dispensing controlled substances in violation of the Controlled Substances Act and for committing health care fraud. The prosecution’s theory was that Ignasiak prescribed unnecessary or excessive quantities of controlled substances (pain killers) without a legitimate medical purpose and…
In U.S. v. Davila appealed his tax fraud conviction and 115 month sentence. The only issue addressed in this reversal was that the lower court erred in participating in his Davila’s decision to plead guilty. Several months prior to his plea there was an in camera hearing before a Magistrate…
Consalvo v. Secretary for Dept. of Corrections is a federal habeas case arising from a death sentence imposed by a Florida state court for burglary and first-degree murder convictions. After the Florida Supreme Court affirmed Consalvo’s conviction and sentence and denied post conviction relief, Consalvo petitioned the federal district court…
The issue in Walton v. Attorney General, State of Florida was whether Walton’s second state petition for a writ of habeas corpus was properly filed under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) so as to toll the one-year limitations period for filing a federal petition for a writ…
The defendants in U.S. v. Augustin, a case known in the Miami area media as the Liberty City Seven case, lost their appeal from convictions for the following offenses: 1. Conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization (Al Qaeda) knowing it to be engaged in terrorist activities;…
A professional sports agent, the defendant in U.S. v. Dominguez was charged and convicted of smuggling 5 Cuban baseball players to the United States, transporting them from Miami to Los Angeles, and then harboring them there until they applied for asylum. Dominguez represented over 100 baseball players, many of whom…
In U.S. v. Jose Padilla, the court of appeals upheld the conviction of Padilla, commonly known as the “dirty bomber” who was held in solitary confinement for 3 years as an enemy combatant before he was indicted in Miami. Padilla along with Adham Hassoun and Kifah Jayyousi were charged with…