In federal criminal courts, when a person is convicted of a drug offense with a minimum mandatory sentence provision, there are only two ways that allow a federal judge to go below that statutory minimum mandatory sentence: a 5K motion filed by the federal prosecutor if the client provides substantial…
The Supreme Court handed down an important federal criminal law decision on March 7th, 2022 involving the interpretation of the “different occasions” language in the Armed Career Criminal Act. The Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U.S.C. s.924(e), provides for a 15 year minimum mandatory sentence for any defendant convicted of…
As every criminal defense lawyer knows, there are some very draconian minimum mandatory sentences in Federal criminal court. There are federal minimum mandatory sentences for certain drug offenses, firearm offenses, and for defendants who have certain convictions. There are two ways to break the minimum mandatory sentence, which then allows…
A Federal Grand Jury is an integral part of almost any federal criminal case. Grand jury testimony often becomes a key issue in a federal criminal trial. But what is a Grand Jury exactly? How is it different than any other jury? How is the federal system different than in…
Bernandino Bolatete has been arrested and charged by criminal complaint in federal court in Jacksonville, Florida after threatening to a mass shooting at a local mosque. But what he has initially been charged with might surprise you? Rather than a charge related to a terroristic threat, Mr. Bolatete has been…
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and a state attorney’s office in New York recently obtained a settlement with BNP Paribas, a large bank based out of France that resulted in a huge fine against the bank. The bank was charged with falsifying bank records to allow it to use the…
The federal wire fraud statute is very broad and used often by United States Attorneys offices in presenting indictments to grand juries. Essentially, a person commits wire fraud when he/she uses a wire communication (i.e. a telephone, among other methods) to defraud someone out of money or property using false…
E-cigarettes are often marketed as a safer alternative to regular tobacco cigarettes. There are many new companies, some of them public, that are manufacturing e-cigarettes and making a lot of money doing so. E-cigarettes are different from traditional cigarettes in that they are battery operated and heat a liquid that…
It is not always clear when a criminal case will be handled by the federal government, i.e. the United States Attorney’s Office, or the state or local government, i.e. the state attorney’s office here in Florida. For drug cases, the federal government typically likes to handle the bigger cases, and…
As we have discussed several times on this site in the past, minimum mandatory sentences are among the most counterproductive and just plain stupid ideas our government has come up with, and that is saying a lot given the state of our government these days. Among other problems, they are…