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

After police officers interrupt what they reasonably believe to be a residential burglary and detain two suspects just outside of the house, they can thereafter lawfully enter the home—without a warrant, and without further suspicion of wrongdoing—to briefly search for additional perpetrators and potential victims. The Eleventh Circuit held that the suspected burglary presented an exigent circumstance that justified a warrantless entry and search. Accordingly, the officers in this case did not violate the Fourth Amendment, and the court reversed the district court's denial of summary judgment and remanded with instructions to grant the officers' motion for summary judgment. View "Montanez v. Carvajal" on Justia Law

The State Executive Clemency Board appealed the district court's orders in favor of appellees James Michael Hand and eight other convicted felons who have completed their sentences and sought to regain their voting rights in Florida. The Eleventh Circuit held that the State Executive Clemency Board has made a sufficient showing under Nken v. Holder, 556 U.S. 418, 426 (2009), to warrant a stay. The court explained that the Fourteenth Amendment expressly empowered the states to abridge a convicted felon's right to vote; binding precedent held that the Governor had broad discretion to grant and deny clemency, even when the applicable regime lacked any standards; and, although a reenfranchisement scheme could violate equal protection if it had both the purpose and effect of invidious discrimination, appellees have not alleged -- let alone established as undisputed facts -- that Florida's scheme has a discriminatory purpose or effect. View "Hand v. Scott" on Justia Law

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of a writ of habeas corpus vacating his convictions pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2254. The court held that petitioner was not denied due process or access to the courts because he was unable—due to the unavailability of a transcript of his criminal trial—to prove in collaterally attacking his convictions that his trial attorneys rendered ineffective assistance of counsel in violation of his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The court held that the state court's decision affirming the collateral-attack court's denial of relief was not contrary to, nor involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established United States Supreme Court precedent. View "Bush v. Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections" on Justia Law

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of a 28 U.S.C. 2254 petition for writ of habeas corpus. The court held that federal habeas relief was not warranted on petitioner's claim that his Sixth Amendment right to self-representation was violated under Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806 (1975). The court held that there was no basis to conclude that the Florida Supreme Court's denial of petitioner's Sixth Amendment self-representation claim was either contrary to or an unreasonable application of Supreme Court precedent, or that it resulted from an unreasonable determination of the facts. View "Barnes v. Secretary, Department of Corrections" on Justia Law

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed Defendant Whitman's conviction and Defendant McCarty's sentence for convictions of bribery, wire fraud, theft, and obstruction involving government contracts. The court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it refused to give a lesser-included-offense instruction on giving illegal gratuities. The court also held that the district court did not clearly err when it calculated McCarty's sentencing guidelines range using the loss amount caused by all participants in the jointly undertaken criminal scheme. View "United States v. Whitman" on Justia Law

Plaintiff, a Florida prisoner proceeding pro se, appealed the district court's grant of a motion to dismiss his civil rights complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477, 114 S. Ct. 2364 (1994). The Eleventh Circuit vacated the judgment, holding that the action was not barred by Heck. In this case, plaintiff was punished and lost gain time, but his 42 U.S.C. 1983 suit, if successful, would not necessarily imply that his punishment was invalid. The court explained that, because success in this section 1983 suit would not necessarily be "logically contradictory" with the underlying punishment, the suit was not barred by Heck. Therefore, the district court erred in concluding otherwise. View "Dixon v. Pollock" on Justia Law

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed defendant's convictions and sentence for crimes related to a multi-state tax fraud scheme using Indigent Inmate, a prisoner "charity" defendant founded and financed. The court held that the district court did not err when it admitted evidence seized from defendant's clothing as well as his post-arrest statements; the district court did not abuse its discretion when it admitted evidence of uncharged conduct and photographs of defendant and another individual with large sums of money; the district court did not violate defendant's right not to wear jail clothes; the district court did not err when it gave the jury a Pinkerton jury instruction; sufficient evidence supported defendant's convictions; and the district court did not err when it calculated defendant's sentencing guidelines range, nor did it impose a substantively unreasonable sentence. View "United States v. Shabazz" on Justia Law

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of a 28 U.S.C. 2241 petition, but on different grounds. Petitioner was convicted of murdering Eleventh Circuit Judge Robert Vance and sentenced to death. The court held that petitioner had Article III standing to challenge Alabama's exercise of custody given his previously-imposed federal sentences, and that his second claim did not constitute an unauthorized second or successive section 2254 petition. The court held, however, that petitioner's claims failed on the merits. The court's own precedent foreclosed petitioner's substantive assertion that the Alabama execution could not be carried out until the federal sentences of life imprisonment were complete. View "Moody v. Warden Holman CF" on Justia Law

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed defendant's convictions and sentence for encouraging and inducing aliens to enter the United States. The court held that the district court did not err in denying defendant's motion to suppress where a reasonable person would understand that giving "complete" consent to a search of his boat, in this context, would include consenting to the search of a GPS on board that could indicate where the boat had been and shed light on why it was beached so far out in the ocean. The court also held that the district court did not abuse its discretion by applying a two-point enhancement under USSG 3C1.1 for obstruction of justice. View "United States v. Suarez Plasencia" on Justia Law

Defendant was convicted of knowingly possessing and distributing hundreds of images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of minors, some of whom were less than twelve years old. The court held that defendant failed to put forth any evidence that defendant knew downloaded files were automatically placed into a shared folder accessible to the Ares peer-to-peer network. Therefore, the court reversed defendant's distribution conviction. The court affirmed the district court's denial of the motion to suppress evidence seized from defendant's home; affirmed the conviction for knowingly possessing a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct; and affirmed the application of the Guidelines enhancements for possession of more than 600 images involving the sexual exploitation of a minor under USSG 2G2.2(b)(7), some of which involved sadistic or masochistic acts and violence. View "United States v. Carroll" on Justia Law