Criminal Cases

US v. Bishop, No. 09-20172, involved a prosecution for aggravated identity theft and fraud in connection with access devices.  The Fifth Circuit affirmed a condition of defendant's supervised release requiring her to participate in a mental health program as deemed necessary and approved by the probation officer, holding that any error by the district court in delegating authority to a probation officer to determine the length of a defendant's treatment was not plain or obvious because the court had not previously addressed the issue.

US v. Longstreet, No. 09-60051, the court of appeals affirmed in part defendant's sentence for trafficking firearms and for making a false statement in connection with the purchase of firearms, holding that 1) defendant was not permitted to collaterally attack a prior state court conviction; 2) there was considerable evidence that defendant knew the guns would be used in other felony offenses; and 3) it was proper for the district court to have considered acts beyond defendant's actual purchases, so long as those acts were in furtherance of the same course of conduct or common scheme or plan as the conspiracy.  However, the court vacated in part where, absent particularized findings that defendant was actually involved in a co-conspirator's activities prior to 2001 or that defendant was otherwise responsible for more than 200 firearms from 2001 through 2005, the present record provided no justifiable basis for the district court's assessment of a ten-level increase.

Related Resources

• Full Text of US v. Bishop, No. 09-20172
• Full Text of US v. Longstreet, No. 09-60051