Court restricts new trials for people with felony convictions

Court restricts new trials for people with felony convictions

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After the Supreme Court’s ruling in 2019, a defendant was convicted as a felon with a firearm under 18 USC § 922(g) Rehaif v. United States He has no right to participate in a new trial or plea hearing unless he “provides sufficient arguments or statements in the appeal to show that he could have provided evidence in the trial that he did not actually know that he was a felon”, The court ruled on Monday in this situation Greer v. United States with United States v. Gary. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the unanimous court Gree And passed by an 8-1 majority Gary.

in Leihaif, The court ruled for the first time that the conviction for a federal possession of a felony requires not only proof that he has been told that he owns a firearm, but also that he is a felony under section 922(g).The following Leihaif, Many such defendants question their convictions, whether they were convicted by the jury or pleaded guilty. Each of these challenges raises the question of whether the parties and the court knew at the time that the government needed the knowledge to prove the status of a felon, whether it would have any impact on the outcome. The Court of Appeals has used various methods to deal with such challenges, from going beyond trial records to larger “district court” records to find evidence of the status of the felons who have been told to preventive “structural errors” methods, basically Ensure that a new hearing is held in all circumstances.

In Monday’s ruling, the court held that neither Gregory Greer nor Michael Andrew Gary has assumed the burden of proof, that is, there is a “reasonable possibility” that they will not be convicted. Rekhaf Observed in their case. Both were convicted of multiple crimes that met the felony provisions of Section 922(g), which in itself constituted “substantial evidence” that they knew they were felony. In addition, none of them argued on appeal or stated that they would provide evidence at trial that they did not actually realize that they were serious offenders.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor joins the court Gree But disagree Gary, Said she would return the latter case to allow a lower court to decide in the first instance whether Gary satisfies the clear majority standard. (She did agree that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit erroneously believed Rekhaf The error constitutes a “structural error” that automatically entitles the defendant to obtain relief. )

Check back soon for an in-depth analysis of opinions.



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