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Unpublished Decisions

By Shari Allison

U.S. v. Moreno, 2010 WL 597506 (2/22/10) (unpub'd) - Evidence of the defendant's involvement in criminal conduct for which he was not convicted met the "low" standard of "minimum indicia of reliability." There was more than just a police report. There were eyewitnesses and/or probable cause findings. The extra criminal conduct justified the district court varying upward from 37 months to 60 months for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Interestingly, the 10th refuses to consider a substantive unreasonableness argument because appellate counsel just made a bare contention with no supporting argument, but then tried to head off at the pass a future ineffective assistance claim by saying "it may not be inferred that the defendant was prejudiced" by counsel's inadequate briefing because it is an "extraordinarily heavy burden" to succeed on a substantive-reasonableness claim...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tenth Circuit Blog on March 02, 2010 (boomark / email).