News and Case Summaries

Case Summaries

Criminal Law & Procedure

[02/22] US v. Lewis
Conviction on firearm offenses is vacated because a firearm found on the defendant during a traffic stop should have been suppressed as the fruit of an unlawful search and seizure, where neither illegal tints on the vehicle's windows nor the tip that firearms were in the possession of the individuals in the vehicle provided the requisite reasonable suspicion of criminal activity under the Fourth Amendment.

[02/22] US v. Moore
On appeal of the district court's denial of a motion to suppress a confession, judgment of conviction after plea is affirmed, where: 1) the confession, given after Miranda warnings but also after a previous interrogation without Miranda warnings, was given voluntarily and without coercion, and was not elicited by the two-step technique proscribed by Missouri v. Seibert, 542 U.S. 600 (2004); and 2) the confession did not offend the Sixth Amendment because the defendant's right to counsel had not yet attached.

[02/21] Kawashima v. Holder
In removal proceedings against resident aliens who were convicted of willfully making and subscribing a false tax return under 26 USC section 7206(1) and aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return under 26 USC section 7206(2), the orders of removal are affirmed, as violations of sections 7206(1) and (2) are crimes "involv[ing] fraud or deceit" under 8 USC section 1101(a)(43)(M)(i) and are therefore aggravated felonies subjecting the respondents to removal when the loss to the government exceeds $10,000.

[02/21] Howes v. Fields
On petition for habeas corpus challenging the admissibility of a confession given while the prisoner was questioned by corrections officers within a prison, the Sixth Circuit's granting of habeas relief is reversed, where: 1) there is no categorical rule that isolation from the general prison population, combined with questioning about conduct occurring outside the prison, makes any such interrogation custodial per se; and 2) under the circumstances, the respondent was not taken into custody for Miranda purposes, so his confession was admissible.

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