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Tag Archives: Sentencing

Justice reform 2021: Assembly poised to erase mandatory minimums

When the 2021 Virginia General Assembly opens on Jan. 13, criminal justice reform, a major issue in last year’s session, will be back front and center. A group of progressive Virginia prosecutors has united behind a five-point agenda for the ...

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Criminal history includes only active sentences

Rejecting the reasoning in unpublished 4th Circuit decisions on the question, the court held that under Sentencing Guidelines § 4A1.2, a defendant’s criminal history category calculation did not include petty offenses for which active imprisonment was less than 30 days, ...

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CAV: Attempt is “punished as larceny,” qualifying for enhancement

Attempted petit larceny qualifies as a felony recidivist “third or subsequent offense” under Code § 18.2-104, meriting an enhancement sentence. Background At trial, the Commonwealth presented evidence that Appellant Fred Coleman was attempting to steal a bicycle when the victim ...

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4th Cir.: Sentence-reduction motion was in feds’ discretion

By the unambiguous terms of a plea agreement, the government had discretion to determine whether the defendant had complied with his obligation under the agreement to give full and complete testimony when asked. Given this discretion, it was not required ...

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4th Cir.: No late substitute for unconstitutional predicate

After U.S. Supreme Court precedent invalidated one of the defendant’s three predicate convictions mandating a sentence enhancement under the Armed Career Criminal Act, his sentence could not be sustained by a “substitute” conviction that appeared on his pre-sentence report but ...

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CAV: News article on prior trial not testimonial; admissible

At a defendant’s probation revocation hearing, the circuit court properly admitted information about the defendant’s most recent convictions as reported in a news article read by the prosecutor. The article was written to inform the public, not in anticipation of ...

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4th Cir.: Fraud conspirator must forfeit only her own proceeds

Under recent U.S. Supreme Court precedent, a defendant convicted in a mortgage fraud conspiracy could not be ordered to forfeit the total amount of losses from the conspiracy – over $1.5 million – when she personally had received only $231,000 ...

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