The mildly stimulant leaves of an east African plant called khat was the subject of a 2009 federal drug trafficking prosecution in Indianapolis, when a U.S. immigrant from Somalia was found distributing it to customers of his coffee shop. Khat, which produces a...
Tampa Federal Criminal Defense Lawyer
Month: July 2013
The Alleyne Decision
Alleyne v. U.S., No. 11-9335 (U.S. Sup. Ct. June 17, 2013) (Justice Thomas)In Alleyne, the Supreme Court, by a 5-4 vote, reversed its much maligned decision in Harris v. U.S., 536 U.S. 545 (2002), which held that the Apprendi rule does not bar a sentencing judge from...
More than 2,000 convictions for federal crimes now under review
The U.S. Department of Justice has just announced that it will be reviewing the validity of more than 2,000 convictions for federal crimes handed down between 1984 and 2000. Based on evidence provided by the Innocence Project and other criminal defense groups, a...
Federal guidelines in flux; high insider trade sentences noticed
Over the past few years, criminal defense attorneys, civil rights activists and even federal judges have begun openly criticizing the structure of, and the often-harsh sentences resulting from, the federal sentencing guidelines. In the latest of a recent series, the...
Brooksville psychiatrist exonerated of 148 Medicare fraud charges
Kesmond Wilson has spent the last two years under the threat of criminal prosecution. He was arrested in late 2011 on 148 counts of suspected Medicare fraud and, when reporters discovered he had a criminal record, he was vilified in the press. He was expected to face...
Federal Florida jury finds four guilty in Medicare fraud case
A Florida federal jury recently found four defendants accused of a lucrative Medicare fraud scheme guilty of various fraud crimes and related charges, including wire fraud, health care fraud, conspiracy to commit wire and health care fraud and conspiracy to pay bribes...