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

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed defendant's convictions for possessing 15 or more unauthorized access devices in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1029(a)(3) and aggravated identity theft in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1028A(a)(1). At issue was whether the district court had subject matter jurisdiction over a criminal case to accept a guilty plea where the indictment charges a violation of a valid federal criminal statute and sets forth the interstate commerce element of the crime; the factual proffer for the guilty plea states the government at trial would prove that the defendant's conduct affected interstate commerce; but the factual proffer does not contain any underlying facts explaining how the interstate commerce nexus was satisfied.The court held that the interstate commerce element in section 1029(a)(3) is not "jurisdictional" in the sense of bearing on whether the district court has subject matter jurisdiction to adjudicate a case, and thus the government's alleged failure to prove sufficiently the interstate commerce nexus does not deprive the district court of its subject matter jurisdiction over defendant's criminal case. Therefore, in this instance, whether the government proved the interstate commerce nexus or failed to prove it, the district court still had subject matter jurisdiction over defendant's case and her conviction under section 1029(a)(3). View "United States v. Yero Grimon" on Justia Law

Defendant appealed the district court's restitution order after he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. At issue was how to calculate the amount of restitution a possessor of child pornography, like defendant, must pay to a victim whose childhood sexual abuse appears in the pornographic images he possessed but did not create or distribute.The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the restitution amounts as to eight victims and vacated and remanded as to one victim. The court held that the district court was not required to calculate and disaggregate the victim's losses in the manner defendant suggested and that reliable evidence supported the restitution awards as to eight victims, but not as to one victim. View "United States v. Rothenberg" on Justia Law

The presumption against the extraterritorial application of congressional legislation does not apply to preclude a sentencing judge from considering extraterritorial conduct which would otherwise be properly considered as relevant conduct. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the imposition of a two-level sentencing enhancement for distribution under USSG 2G2.2 after defendant was convicted of child pornography related offenses. In this case, the court rejected defendant's contention that his distribution of child pornography videos while he was in Jamaica should not have affected his Guidelines calculation. View "United States v. Spence" on Justia Law

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of petitioner's 28 U.S.C. 2254 petition. The court rejected petitioner's ineffective assistance of counsel claim and held that counsel's performance in presenting petitioner's case in mitigation was not objectively unreasonable where counsel's decisions were strategic and did not fall outside the wide range of reasonable professional assistance the Sixth Amendment required. The court also held that the trial court did not err in requiring petitioner to wear a stun belt during the resentencing trial where the stun belt was not visible to the jury or the public, and the state trial court's opinion was not contrary to and did not involve an unreasonable application of clearly established federal law as determined by the Supreme Court. View "Nance v. Warden, Georgia Diagnostic Prison" on Justia Law

A five-year statute of limitations for a defendant implicated by DNA testing, 18 U.S.C. 3297, permits indictment within five years of that testing regardless of whether the limitation period otherwise applicable to the offense has already expired. The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment do not prohibit the use of the nontestimonial statements of a nontestifying criminal defendant against his codefendant in a joint trial.Defendants Hano and Arrastia-Cardoso were convicted of Hobbs Act robbery and conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act robbery. The Eleventh Circuit rejected Hano's argument that the indictment against him was not returned within the applicable limitation period; the evidentiary issues raised by defendants did not merit reversal; Hano failed to establish that the denial of his motion to obtain a DNA profile resulted in any prejudice; the court rejected Hano's argument that the government failed to produce sufficient evidence to support his convictions; the government did not improperly comment on Arrastia-Cardoso's decision not to testify; and Hano "otherwise used" a dangerous weapon in the commission of the robbery so the district court was warranted in applying a four-level sentencing enhancement. Accordingly, the court affirmed the convictions and sentences. View "United States v. Hano" on Justia Law

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed Defendant Bechir and Kenny's convictions and sentences for seven crimes arising out of their identity theft and tax fraud operations. The court affirmed the district court's denial of Bechir's motion to suppress and held that the automobile exception to the warrant requirement applied to the warrantless search of his car and, in the alternative, the inevitable discovery doctrine applied to the search. The court held that the evidence was sufficient to show that Kenny knowingly took part in the criminal activities of identity theft and tax fraud; the district court did not abuse its discretion in allowing a detective to testify as an expert witness as to the meanings of the terminology used in stolen identity refund fraud generally or by the individuals recorded on the undercover video specifically; and defendants' cumulative error claim lacked merit.The court also held that the district court did not err by applying a two-level sentencing enhancement under USSG 2B1.1(b)(15)(B) for possession of a firearm in connection with defendants' offenses. Finally, Kenny's 84 month sentence was substantively reasonable and the district court did not abuse its discretion in sentencing him. View "United States v. Delva" on Justia Law

After defendant was charged with 23 counts arising from a fraudulent scheme, he agreed to return to Russia pursuant to a settlement agreement with the government and to abandon his lawful permanent resident status in the United States. The day after defendant boarded a flight to Russia, the government moved to dismiss the indictment.The Eleventh Circuit dismissed defendant's appeal of the district court's grant of the government's motion to dismiss the indictment. The court held that the order did nothing more than dismiss the indictment against defendant and he lacked standing to complain about it. In this case, defendant presented no case or controversy and the dismissal caused him no injury. View "United States v. Pavlenko" on Justia Law

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed defendant's sentence imposed after he pleaded guilty to a single count charging him with possession of a firearm and ammunition by a prohibited person: an alien unlawfully in the United States. The district court did not err by applying a base offense level of 20, because defendant was a prohibited person at the time of the offense and the offense involved a semiautomatic firearm in "close proximity" to a high-capacity magazine under USSG 2K2.1, App. Notes 2. In this case, defendant's locked Colt AR-15 was in a gun case in his bedroom, and high-capacity magazines were in a gun-range bag no more than ten feet away. View "United States v. Gordillo" on Justia Law

Defendant appealed her sentence imposed after she pleaded guilty to participation in an identity-fraud conspiracy. The Eleventh Circuit vacated defendant's sentence and held that the district court committed plain error in its application of the ten-or-more-victims enhancement under USSG 2B1.1 cmt. n.4(E) because, contrary to United States v. Hall, 704 F.3d 1317 (11th Cir. 2013), the district court counted as a victim any individual whose means of identification was stolen regardless of whether it was "used" as a means of identification. However, the district court did not plainly err in applying the loss amount enhancement. The court remanded for resentencing. View "United States v. Corbett" on Justia Law

After rehearing en banc, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the denial of defendant's motion to suppress evidence and held that a police officer did not violate the Fourth Amendment when he removed a round of live ammunition and a holster from the pocket of a suspect during a protective frisk. The court held that the officer's frisk was reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the frisk in the first place. In this case, the officer encountered an unsecure scene, late at night, in a high-crime area, while investigating a reported burglary, and his removal of the ammunition and holster was reasonably related to the protection of the officers and others. View "United States v. Johnson" on Justia Law