United States v. Duncan FanFan
Jan 12, 2005OUTCOME: Judgment for Defendant
This is one of the major federal criminal law cases decided in the last 30 years regarding the 6th Amendment to the US Constitution. In this major case, the federal judge applied the mandatory sentenci ... ng guidelines and determined that factual issues decided by a preponderance of the evidence by the judge could be used at sentencing. I was local counsel in this case with Roger Witkin, and an appeal by the Defendant was brought to challenge the mandatory nature of the guidelines, and also whether the judge could find facts at sentencing by a preponderance of the evidence, outside of the jury. In both issues, (we) the Defendant prevailed. The United States Supreme Court found that the guidelines could not be applied on a mandatory basis, and only facts found by the jury beyond a reasonable doubt could be used at sentencing.