Justia U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

A jury found Defendant guilty of three misdemeanor counts of willful failure to file a federal income tax return. Defendant was represented by counsel at trial, but he lacked representation during the pretrial process. At his arraignment, Defendant expressed his desire to waive his right to counsel and to represent himself. The magistrate judge found that Defendant’s waiver was knowing, even after misinforming him that the maximum sentence he could receive if convicted was 12 months of imprisonmentThe court found the magistrate judge’s statements were materially incorrect. Instead of “unambiguously” informing Defendant of the penalties he faced, the magistrate judge incorrectly asserted that “we’re not talking about a felony involving imprisonment beyond one year”—when the true maximum sentence was three times longer. Thus, the court held that there was no knowing and intelligent waiver of the right to counsel. Next, the court found that the deprivation of Defendant’s right to counsel at all pretrial stages of the proceedings against him was a structural error. As such, the court vacated Defendant’s conviction and remanded to the district court for further proceedings. View "USA v. Saleem Hakim" on Justia Law

Several young girls were locked out of their social media accounts. Shortly after being locked out, Defendant would contact them, demanding pornographic images. Defendant threatened to release the images to the girls' social media followers if they did not follow his instructions. One of the girls called the police, which eventually led them to Defendant's residence. The officer told Defendant he was not under arrest but that he was investigating a crime. Defendant admitted to taking over about 20 girls' social media accounts and provided details about the involvement of several other men. The district denied Defendant's motion to suppress the statements he made to police. Defendant was convicted and sentenced to 50 years’ imprisonment followed by a life term of supervised release.The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court denial of Defendant's motion to suppress, holding Defendant was not under arrest at the time he made the statements to the police. The court also affirmed Defendant's sentence, finding it was not procedurally and substantively reasonable. View "USA v. Joseph Isaiah Woodson, Jr." on Justia Law

Defendant was convicted of conspiracy and substantive health care fraud for fraudulently billing Medicare and Medicaid for millions of dollars for visits to nursing home patients that he never made. He challenged the convictions, sentence, restitution amount, and forfeiture amount on appeal.The co-conspirator pleaded guilty to conspiracy and agreed to cooperate with the government. Part of his plea agreement addressed his compensation during the conspiracy. Defendant contends that the district court erred in quashing his subpoena of the co-conspirator’s attorney. The court ruled that any erroneous exclusion of the attorney’s testimony was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt because his testimony would not have impeached the co-conspirator. He further argues that the district court erred in limiting how many character witnesses he could present. The court found that the district court did not err because defendant overstates the importance of character witness testimony in this case. He was not on trial for being uncaring or uncompassionate but for lying and billing Medicare for services he did not provide.Additionally, defendant contends that the district court improperly limited part of his counsel’s closing argument when he was discussing whether defendant had made a profit. The court found that the government does not have to prove a defendant profited to establish the elements of fraud. The court also found that the district court did not err in calculating the loss amount used to determine defendant's sentence or the amount of restitution ordered. View "USA v. Douglas Moss" on Justia Law

In March 2017, a woman contacted police explaining that the defendant, her ex-boyfriend, was having sex with her 14-year-old sister. When the girl’s family confronted her, she acknowledged that she was communicating with the defendant over social media, had sent him nude pictures, and that they had sex. The defendant’s cell phone contained nude pictures of the girl. The defendant was charged with various sex offenses in a seven-count indictment. During his arrest, officers confiscated the defendant's second cell phone, which contained additional inculpatory evidence.The district court denied the defendant’s motion to suppress evidence found in his home during a warrantless search, from one of his cellphones obtained from his work, and his statements to detectives. The defendant was ultimately convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment plus a consecutive ten-year mandatory minimum sentence.The Eleventh Circuit affirmed. The officers had consent to enter the defendant’s home to obtain his cell phone. Once officers reviewed the phone, they then developed probable cause to search the defendant’s second cell phone. The court also rejected the defendant’s challenges to the computation of his sentence. View "USA v. Romeo Valentin Sanchez" on Justia Law

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction for intent to distribute cocaine and cocaine base, concluding that defendant has forfeited any argument under which the court may grant relief. In this case, defendant alleged that the district court improperly denied his right to self-representation under Faretta v. California. The court concluded that, despite the existence of a circuit split on whether a voluntary guilty plea waives the right to self-representation on appeal and the court's own order to defendant's appellate counsel instructing her to brief whether this court can review a denial of the right to self-representation following a guilty plea, appellate counsel failed to make any argument in the opening brief that even approached the applicable legal question. View "United States v. Williams" on Justia Law

The Eleventh Circuit granted a petition for review of the BIA's order affirming the IJ's denial of petitioner's application for cancellation of removal. The court agreed with petitioner that he satisfied his burden of demonstrating his eligibility for cancellation of removal for certain lawful permanent residents because his violation of Fla. Stat. 893.13(6)(a) did not relate to a controlled substance, as defined in 21 U.S.C. 802, and thus did not prevent him from accruing the necessary seven-year period of continuous residence.The court explained that, because a violation of section 893.13(6)(a) did not relate to a controlled substance as defined under federal law, petitioner's conviction under this statute in 2017 did not affect his ability to accrue the required seven years of continuous eligibility necessary for cancellation of removal. Rather, petitioner's residence "clock" stopped in 2019 when he was arrested for fleeing and eluding while lights and sirens were activated. The court explained that, at this point in time, petitioner had lived in the United States continuously for eight years, thereby meeting the residency requirement under INA 240A. View "Fuad Fares Fuad Said v. U.S. Attorney General" on Justia Law

The Eleventh Circuit concluded that the district court did not err in denying defendant's motion to dismiss the 2020 indictment on double jeopardy grounds and therefore affirmed the district court. Defendant was acquitted of solicitation and advertisement for child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2251(d)(1), but charged with attempting to employ, use, persuade, induce, entice and coerce a person whom he believed to be a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing visual depictions of such conduct, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2251(a). Defendant asserts that the district court erred because section 2251(d) does not require proof of any fact beyond what is required for a section 2251(a) conviction. However, the court concluded that section 2251(a) and section 2251(d) each require proof of an additional fact that the other offense does not. View "United States v. Lee" on Justia Law

The Eleventh Circuit granted the petition for review of the BIA's decision affirming the IJ's determination that petitioner was removeable. The IJ concluded that petitioner's conviction for burglary of an unoccupied dwelling, Fla. Stat. 810.02(3)(b), is a crime involving moral turpitude (CIMT).The court explained that Florida has applied section 810.02(3)(b) to a dwelling which was not occupied prior to or after the entry, State v. Bennett, 565 So. 2d 803, 805 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990), and that application impacts whether a violation of section 810.02(3)(b) is a CIMT. However, neither the IJ nor the BIA address petitioner's impact of Bennett here. Accordingly, the court vacated and remanded for the BIA to address Bennett under the realistic probability component of the categorical approach. View "Lauture v. U.S. Attorney General" on Justia Law

The Eleventh Circuit reversed the district court's grant of a petition for a writ of habeas corpus vacating petitioner's convictions for murder, armed robbery, and kidnapping with bodily injury. Of the twelve claims presented to the Circuit Court, only the first five challenged petitioner's conviction and thus are relevant here. Claims I and III incorporated numerous subclaims: Claim I had three subclaims, while Claim III had eight subclaims denoted A through H, with Claim III-H having an additional five subclaims of its own. Claim III-H-4, which provided the principal basis for the writ of habeas corpus the district court issued, alleged that the prosecutor failed to disclose to the defense as required by Brady v. Maryland the handwritten notes he made of a pretrial conversation he had with two named individuals.The court concluded that petitioner failed to exhaust Claim III-H-4 in the state courts because he failed to present the claim to the Florida Supreme Court such that the reasonable reader would understand the claim's particular legal basis and specific factual foundation. Furthermore, the district court's issuance of the writ based on a witness's statement constituted reversible error. The court considered the remaining claims and affirmed the district court's denial of relief as to petitioner's cross-appeal. View "Green v. Secretary, Department of Corrections" on Justia Law

Defendants Bramwell, Howard, and Stone were convicted of crimes involving the millions of dollars that Tricare paid Howard for filling compounded cream prescriptions for patients. Bramwell wrote the vast majority of those prescriptions, and Stone helped in recruiting some of the patients for whom Howard filled prescriptions. Defendants were convicted for paying or receiving kickbacks and conspiring to do it. Howard was also convicted of laundering some of the proceeds.The Eleventh Circuit concluded that the evidence was sufficient to support defendants' convictions. In this case, the evidence was sufficient to prove that Howard paid, and Bramwell received kickbacks and that they conspired to do so; that Howard paid, and Stone received, kickbacks and that they conspired to do so; and that Howard laundered money. The court also concluded that there was no constructive amendment to the indictment. However, the court concluded that Bramwell's sentence of probation is substantively unreasonable where the district court clearly erred in weighing the 18 U.S.C. 3553(a) factors. Accordingly, the court vacated Bramwell's sentence and remanded for further proceedings. The court otherwise affirmed the judgments. View "United States v. Howard" on Justia Law