Justia U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

The Fifth Circuit vacated defendant's sentence imposed after he pleaded guilty to production, transportation, and possession of child pornography, as well as committing a felony offense involving a minor while being required to register as a sex offender. The court held that the district court plainly erred by applying USSG 2G2.1(d)(1) to create five "pseudo counts" of production of child pornography that were factored into the calculation of his total offense level. Considering that the Guidelines range resulting from the district court's offense level calculation was life imprisonment, with an aggregate sentence of 45 years having been imposed, and that the appropriate remedy is resentencing, which can be accomplish fairly quickly and without extraordinary expense, the court exercised its discretion to remedy the calculation error. Accordingly, the court remanded for resentencing. View "United States v. Randall" on Justia Law

Border Patrol agents may conduct a canine sniff to search for drugs or concealed aliens at immigration checkpoints so long as the sniff does not lengthen the stop beyond the time necessary to verify the immigration status of a vehicle's passengers. The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of a motion to suppress evidence found during an immigration-checkpoint stop. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the government, the court held that the canine sniff here did not prolong the immigration stop. In this case, defendant did not dispute that the stop lasted approximately 30 seconds where border patrol agents asked defendant about his citizenship, cargo, and travel, all of which were permissible. The court also noted that defendant gave valid consent to the search. View "United States v. Tello" on Justia Law

The Fifth Circuit treated the petition for rehearing en banc as a petition for panel rehearing pursuant to Fifth Circuit Internal Operating Procedures under Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 35. The court denied the petition for rehearing, withdrew its prior opinion, and issued the following opinion in its place.The court affirmed the district court's denial of habeas relief to petitioner, who was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The court held that, under federal law, if an actual-innocence claim were presented in a successive federal habeas petition, a clear-and-convincing-evidence standard would be applied; federal law does not require states to apply a less demanding standard in a successive state habeas proceeding; and, in the alternative, applying a preponderance-of-the-evidence standard, the TCCA's decision denying petitioner's Atkins claim was not based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented to it. In this case, no expert has ever opined that petitioner is intellectually disabled.The court also rejected petitioner's claim that he received ineffective assistance of counsel on direct appeal, and that his trial counsel was ineffective by failing to conduct an adequate sentencing investigation or by failing to present an adequate mitigation case during the penalty phase of trial. View "Busby v. Davis" on Justia Law

Petitioner challenged the district court's denial of his petition for habeas relief relating to his alleged incompetence to stand trial on capital sentencing. The Fifth Circuit held that the district court erroneously granted a hearing on the merits of petitioner's claims and denied relief. The court denied a certificate of appealability (COA) because petitioner's claims were procedurally barred. In the alternative, petitioner's claims lacked merit because all of the evidence brought to bear in the district court on the issue of petitioner's competency in 1995 supported the conclusion that reasonable jurists cannot debate the denial of the Pate claim; reasonable jurists could not debate the district court's decision to reject the claim that counsel provided ineffective assistance; and the claim involving the district court's retrospective competency hearing was waived. View "Gonzales v. Davis" on Justia Law

The Fifth Circuit held that the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) was not impermissibly retroactive as applied to petitioner, because no adjustment-application was pending at the time of the reinstatement order, and his previous adjustment application was denied due to his failure to prosecute. The court held that petitioner's contention that his entry was lawful because he was allegedly waved through at an entry checkpoint was foreclosed by precedent. Accordingly, the court denied the petition for review. View "Terrazas-Hernandez v. Barr" on Justia Law

The Fifth Circuit vacated defendant's conviction for possessing and conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute methamphetamine, possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. The court held that defendant's rights under the Confrontation Clause were violated when a law enforcement officer testified that he knew defendant received a large amount of methamphetamine because of what the officer was told by a confidential informant. Furthermore, the error was not invited by the defense and was not harmless. The court also vacated the related revocation of supervised release and remanded for further proceedings. View "United States v. Jones" on Justia Law

The Fifth Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction for two counts of using a means of interstate commerce to knowingly attempt to transfer obscene matter to a minor under the age of 16, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1470. The court held that the photograph defendant sent to an undercover officer was a patently offensive, lewd exhibition of the genitals. Therefore, the material was obscene, as required under section 1470. The court also held that the evidence was sufficient to support a finding that defendant intended to transfer the image to any minor under the age of 16. View "United States v. Salcedo" on Justia Law

After appellants, each accompanied by a minor child, stated to Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) that they feared persecution in their home countries, they were arrested and charged with misdemeanor improper entry and detained in El Paso. Their children were transferred to the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). In these consolidated appeals, appellants argued that they should not have been criminally prosecuted because they sought asylum, and being separated from their children rendered their convictions constitutionally infirm.The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's judgment in favor of the government, holding that nothing in 8 U.S.C. 1225(b)(1)(A)(ii) prevents the government from initiating a criminal prosecution before or even during the mandated asylum process, nor have appellants shown that qualifying for asylum would be relevant to whether they improperly entered; appellants' argument that deporting them without their children amounted to cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment failed because the four deported appellants were found inadmissible during post-conviction civil immigration proceedings, rather than criminal proceedings; the court declined to apply the outrageous government conduct doctrine in this case; appellants' claims of right of access to evidence were rejected; appellants' fair trial claim repackaged appellants' unsuccessful Brady claim and failed for the same reasons; and the government did not impermissibly burden appellants' right against self-incrimination. View "United States v. Vasquez-Hernandez" on Justia Law

On remand from the Supreme Court, the Fifth Circuit held that defendant's prior Texas aggravated assault conviction was a crime of violence under 18 U.S.C. 16(a). The court held that a knowing threat to another of imminent bodily injury, which was the state statute's requirement, was knowingly threatening to employ a force capable of causing physical pain or injury, which was the section 16(a) requirement. Accordingly, the court affirmed defendant's sentence. View "United States v. Torres" on Justia Law

Plaintiff, a civilly committed sexually violent predator, had to pay for GPS monitoring or be prosecuted under a now-repealed Texas law. Plaintiff filed suit alleging that the pay-or-be-prosecuted penalty violated the Social Security Act's anti-attachment provision, 42 U.S.C. 407(a), which protects benefits from execution, levy, attachment, garnishment, or other legal process.The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment to officials based on qualified immunity, holding that plaintiff's Social Security benefits were not executed on, levied, attached, or garnished. Furthermore, criminalizing a sexually violent predator's failure to pay for GPS monitoring is not "other legal process" under section 407(a). Therefore, the district court correctly interpreted the anti-attachment provision and the officials were entitled to qualified immunity. View "Reed v. Taylor" on Justia Law