Citing “judicial immunity,” the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the dismissal of a multimillion-dollar civil rights lawsuit against a Maryland circuit court judge who ordered a deputy sheriff to use electrical shock to quiet a criminal defendant. ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Dennis W. Shedd Judge James A. Wynn Jr. Judge Roger L. Gregory

In the trial of two defendants charged with producing “spice,” the district court erred in denying their request for testimony by a DEA expert who had publicly opined in other cases that the defendants’ product was not analogous to a ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Evidence Judge Dennis W. Shedd

Although the defendant advised a federal witness to just “tell the truth,” a jury reasonably found that her motives were criminal when she met the witness at the request of their mutual friend who was facing trial. Background In 2014, ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Dennis W. Shedd

As seasoned attorneys know, the lofty principles that attract aspiring lawyers can quickly be overshadowed by client emergencies, Sisyphean scheduling conundrums, unreasonable opposing counsel, billing targets, intrafirm politics, and understaffed courts. But from time to time, our esteemed judges take ...

Tagged with: Judge Dennis W. Shedd Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III Judge James P. Jones Judge Norman K. Moon Judge Paul M. Black Judge Roger L. Gregory Judge T.S. Ellis III

The 4th Circuit rejects a motion to file a successive § 2255 petition filed by a man convicted of retaliatory murder of an informant, and related crimes; contrary to defendant’s assertion, Johnson v. U.S. does not aid his effort to ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Dennis W. Shedd

In a case remanded by the U.S. Supreme Court, the 4th Circuit says the federal government properly alleges a claim under the False Claims Act with allegations that defendant contractor billed the government on a contract to provide security at ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Contract Judge Dennis W. Shedd

A defendant cannot overturn her murder-for-hire conviction on a claim that the government manufactured federal jurisdiction by prompting the contact she used to hire someone to kill her husband to use a cell phone to arrange for her to meet ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Dennis W. Shedd

A Rwandan professor and ethnic Hutu teaching at a New Jersey college and subject to an international arrest war­rant for genocide and genocide negation is subject to removal to Rwanda; the 4th Circuit upholds denial of his applications for asylum, ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Immigration Judge Dennis W. Shedd

The 4th Circuit grants a petition for re­view filed by a citizen of the Dominican Re­public whose removal was ordered based on his two convictions of crimes involving moral turpitude; based on the categorical approach, we hold that a conviction ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Immigration Judge Dennis W. Shedd

A trial court did not err in enhancing defendant’s sentence for illegal firearm possession under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) under the Armed Career Criminal Act based on defendant’s three prior South Carolina drug convictions for offenses that had a maximum ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Dennis W. Shedd