Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Kansas Federal Defender

Criminal Law

: Kansas Federal Defender

Practicality

By Melody Evans and Kirk Redmond

This week, on the same day that the US Supreme Court handed down the much-publicized Baze decision that lethal injection is just fine in this country, two other decisions were also published. These are less dramatic, and -- thankfully -- much shorter and simpler. Both, though, are important to our everyday practice as federal criminal defense lawyers. One is good and one is not, but we need to know both. I'll start with the bad news:Burgess v. US -- even though a state may label a conviction as a misdemeanor, if it is punishable by more than one year, it is considered a felony in the context of federal drug laws. So, for enhancement by section 851 (which usually concerns us when it doubles the mandatory minimum from 5 to 10, or 10 to 20), a prior state misdemeanor for simple possession can serve as a predicate, if the state punishes that crime by more than one year...continue to full post

Full post as published by Kansas Federal Defender on April 18, 2008 (boomark / email).