With acquittal rates at historic lows in the federal system, sentencing has become the most crucial stage of the federal criminal justice process. In most cases, the pre-sentence investigation report (PSI) prepared by the probation officer and the sentencing hearing conducted by
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Substantial Assistance Cooperation agreements are usually embodied in the text of a plea agreement and require the defendant to perform some act of “substantial assistance” to the government. Substantial assistance can involve providing information that will lead to the investigation and arrest
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In a recent publication, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) found, “There is ample evidence that federal criminal defendants are being coerced to plead guilty because the penalty for exercising their constitutional rights is simply too high to risk.”
Eric Granitur, a former Vero Beach real estate and probate attorney, was sentenced yesterday in the Southern District of Florida (West Palm Beach Division) to twelve months and a day in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release.
One of the most important parts of a federal criminal case is the sentencing phase when lawyers argue how the Federal Sentencing Guidelines apply. Case in point: Marcelo Reyes Lopez, a former in-house lawyer for PetroEcuador, who was sentenced to 53 months
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Michael R. Casey, 71, a fugitive for over four years, wanted on federal charges related to an alleged $20 million investment fraud scheme, had his initial appearance yesterday before United States Magistrate Judge Lauren F. Louis in the Southern District of Florida,
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Last week the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the sentence of Geovanys Guevara, remanding the case to the Southern District of Florida (Miami Division) for resentencing. Guevara, of Hialeah, was convicted by a federal jury in 2015 of three counts of
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The U.S. Sentencing Commission has published the official text of the 2018 amendments to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which go into effect on November 1, 2018.
Federal prosecutors have charged a 54-year-old Boynton Beach paralegal with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Department of Homeland Security’s largest federal law enforcement agency, by criminal complaint with receiving and possessing child pornography. Federal child pornography charges carry some of the harshest
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