Secret complaints, outcomes: How Louisiana's Judiciary Commission protects judges it's meant to police

www.nola.com/news/courts/article_278f83de-25c6-11ea-a8c1-ff3562324659.html

United States v. Darrell

Docket: 19-60087
Opinion Date: December 23, 2019
Judge: Higginbotham
Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Fifth Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction and sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Viewing this case under the totality of the circumstances, the court held that reasonable suspicion supported the brief investigatory stop of defendant. In this case, defendant was fleeing from a high-crime area, officers reasonably feared that defendant might draw a weapon or warn the target of their arrest warrant if he were permitted to withdraw from view, and the fact that defendant was not seen committing any criminal activity did not detract from the reasonableness of the officers' suspicion.

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Louisiana readying the rules for industrial hemp farming

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United States v. Sifuentes

Docket: 18-11149
Opinion Date: December 19, 2019
Judge: James C. Ho
Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Fifth Circuit affirmed defendant's sentence imposed after he pleaded guilty to a drug-related money laundering conspiracy. The court held that defendant's sentence was not procedurally unreasonable and he was properly sentenced under USSG 2S1.1(a)(1), rather than subsection (a)(2). The court also held that defendant's sentence was substantively reasonable where defendant failed to offer any sufficient grounds to rebut the presumption of reasonableness for a below-Guidelines sentence.

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United States v. Jackson

Docket: 19-20346
Opinion Date: December 16, 2019
Judge: Jerry E. Smith
Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The abuse of discretion standard of review generally applies to rulings on motions to resentence under the First Step Act, because the Act gives the district court broad discretion in deciding whether to resentence. The Fifth Circuit held that, to the extent the district court's determination turns on "the meaning of a federal statute" such as the Act, the court's review is de novo. The court affirmed the district court's explanation, on limited remand, that it exercised its discretion not to resentence. In this case, the court held that although defendant was eligible for resentencing under the Act because he had a covered offense, the district court had broad discretion not to resentence him. The district court noted that defendant's life sentence still would have fallen within the appropriate statutory range were the Act applied, and it relied on his extensive criminal history and central role in the offense.

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United States v. Jordan

Docket: 18-20564
Opinion Date: December 13, 2019
Judge: Don R. Willett
Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Fifth Circuit affirmed Defendants Jordan and Wise's convictions and sentences for aiding and abetting aggravated credit union robbery. The court held that there was sufficient evidence to sustain Jordan's conviction; if the district court erred in admitting testimony that Jordan and Wise were brothers, the error was harmless; and the district court did not plainly err by admitting evidence that two co-defendants pleaded guilty. The court also held that the evidence was sufficient to support Wise's conviction; the district court did not plainly err in failing to give a Rosemond instruction; the district court did not clearly err in applying a six-level guidelines enhancement for the use of firearms; and the district court did not clearly err in denying Wise's request for a guidelines reduction for his role in the robbery.

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Louisiana vs. Bourg

Docket: 2019-K-00038
Opinion Date: December 11, 2019
Judge: Per Curiam
Areas of Law: Constitutional Law, Criminal Law

In 2014, defendant David Bourg fatally shot Michael Pitre in the head while they were sitting in defendant's truck parked outside Pitre's mother's home in Oberlin, Louisiana. Defendant and the victim had been drinking, and defendant claimed at trial that his weapon discharged accidentally while he was defending himself against the victim. A jury found defendant guilty of manslaughter in response to the charge of second degree murder. The district court granted defendant’s motion for new trial pursuant to La.C.Cr.P. art. 851(B)(1). In doing so, the district court emphasized its evaluation of defendant’s testimony in conjunction with the forensic evidence. On direct review, the court of appeal found that the State had failed to file a motion for imposition of a sentence under the enhancement provision of La.C.Cr.P. art. 893.3, as required by La.C.Cr.P. art. 893.1. Therefore, the court of appeal vacated the sentence. The court of appeal also declined to revisit its earlier determination that the district court erred in granting the motion for new trial. Applying the law-of-the-case doctrine, the court of appeal found no clear error in its prior ruling and affirmed the conviction. The Louisiana Supreme Court did not find as the appellate court did, that the district court failed to weigh the evidence as a "thirteenth juror." "There is no confusion between factual and legal sufficiency that can fairly be discerned from this record." Accordingly, the Supreme Court granted defendant’s application to reverse the court of appeal’s affirmance of the conviction, reinstated the district court’s ruling that granted defendant a new trial pursuant to La.C.Cr.P. art. 851(B)(1), and remanded to the district court for further proceedings.

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​US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Opinions
Atakapa Indian de Creole Nation v. Louisiana

Dockets: 19-30032, 19-30064
Opinion Date: December 10, 2019
Judge: Stuart Kyle Duncan
Areas of Law: Civil Procedure

Plaintiff, a lawyer who is self-described as a monarch and a deity, brought claims on behalf of an Indian tribe alleging that defendants have, among other misdeeds, monopolized "intergalactic foreign trade." The district court dismissed the action based on sovereign immunity. The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal on an alternative basis, holding that plaintiff's claims were frivolous and the district court lacked jurisdiction to entertain them.

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United States v. Aguilar-Alonzo

Docket: 18-50627
Opinion Date: December 9, 2019
Judge: Jennifer Walker Elrod
Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Fifth Circuit withdrew its previous opinion and substituted the following opinion. The court vacated defendant's sentence imposed after he pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the possession with intent to distribute marijuana. The court held that the district court clearly erred by applying a two-level enhancement under USSG 2D1.1(b)(15)(A) for using fear, impulse, friendship, affection, or some combination thereof to involve another individual in the offense. The court interpreted the word "use" under USSG 2D1.1(b)(15)(A) as requiring active employment of affection on the part of the defendant. Under the court's interpretation of the verb "used" in USSG 2D1.1(b)(15)(A), the evidence in the record did not support a two-level enhancement to defendant's offense level because he did not actively employ or play upon affection to induce involvement by his girlfriend in the offense. Finally, any argument as to harmlessness was forfeited and, even if the court were to consider the issue, the court held that the error was not harmless.

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US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit Opinions
United States v. Gonzalez

Docket: 17-40527
Opinion Date: December 3, 2019
Judge: Jerry E. Smith
Areas of Law: Criminal Law

The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of defendant's motion to vacate his conviction and sentence based on the ineffective assistance of counsel (IAC). The court held that the district court's reading of the facts was not clearly erroneous. The court explained that it was unlikely that counsel's erroneous advice regarding the elements of conviction meaningfully affected defendant's calculus of whether to accept the plea deal.

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