8th Amendment: Prison Guards Force Applied Causing Injury NOT Cruel and Unusual If in the Course of Maintaining Order

JUAN J. GUITRON, JR., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MICHAEL PAUL and BRADLEY MLODZIK, Defendants-Appellees. No. 11-2718.

EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge.

Juan Guitron maintains that a guard at the prison where Guitron was confined bent and injured his wrist. The district court dismissed the complaint after the preliminary screening required...

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4th Amendment Search and Seizure: Six Day Delay by Police to Get Search Warrant for Cell Phone Is Not Unreasonable

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. JOSHUA BURGARD, No. 11-1863.

Expecting to find evidence of child pornography, police officers seized Joshua Burgard’s cell phone without a warrant. At that point, however, they seemed to have lost their sense of urgency: they did nothing with the phone right away and...

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FRE 404(b): Government Use of Defendant’s Prior Drug Conviction to Prove Intent Leads to Reversal

USA v. Sharriff Miller, 11-1038

In April 2008, acting on a tip from a confidential informant, police obtained a search warrant and then raided a home where defendant Shariff Miller and several other people were staying. After apprehending Miller on his way out the side door, police searched...

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18 USC 1341 and 1343: Mail and Wire Fraud Do Not Require Allegations of Pecuniary Harm or Economic Loss

USA v. Steven Fenzl. No. 11-2459.

Fenzl is part-owner of Company U, an Illinois corporation engaged in the business of refurbishment and repair of refuse disposal containers. The government alleges that Fenzl engaged in a scheme to defraud the City of Chicago (the “City”) of money and property...

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USSG and Double Counting: Impermissible Only When Text of the Applicable Guideline Specifically Says So

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. DAVID VIZCARRA and ROGELIO AGUIRRE. Nos. 09-1174, 09-2457.

David Vizcarra and Rogelio Aguirre committed a kidnapping for ransom to extract payment of a drug debt, abducting the victim in Indiana, taking her to Illinois, and holding her for two days before...

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Entrapment: IMPORTANT! Court Must Consider Defendant’s Predisposition Before Government Inducement

USA v. Israel Pillado, Irineo Gonzalez, and Leobardo Lara, 10-1081, 10-1083 &10-1202.

A law enforcement operation that began with the promising interdiction of 943 kilograms of marijuana, shipped from Jalisco, Mexico, ended less than admirably.

When government agents executed a “controlled delivery” to an...

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