No. 18-9003

Ariel Brown v. United States

Lower Court: Fifth Circuit
Docketed: 2019-04-29
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
Response WaivedIFP
Tags: and whether false allegations in a Presentence In burden-of-proof criminal-procedure due-process government-burden presentence-report sentencing sentencing-enhancement weapons-enhancement weapons-possession
Key Terms:
DueProcess
Latest Conference: 2019-05-23
Question Presented (AI Summary)

When a defendant submits a sworn Declaration denying key elements of a weapons enhancement, can the defendant be enhanced without the Government meeting its initial burden?

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. When a defendant submits a sworn Declaration attached to her objections to a Presentence Report, which denies certain key required elements of the 2-level weapons enhancement under Sec. 2D1.1 (b)(1), and the Government has not responded with some evidence to refute such sworn statements as part of its initial burden to prove the weapons possession and temporal and spatial relationship, can the defendant be enhanced, consistent with due process, without the Government having met its initial burden? 2. Where a Presentence Investigation Report ("PSR") contains allegations of criminal conduct by a defendant which are stated to be "false" by the district judge at sentencing, but are not used in determining the sentence, is it error to include such untrue allegations in the PSR despite the court's finding that they are false, without either deletion of the allegations or notice to the Bureau of Prisons that such allegations are false?

Docket Entries

2019-05-28
Petition DENIED.
2019-05-08
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/23/2019.
2019-05-03
Waiver of right of respondent United States of America to respond filed.
2019-04-24
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due May 29, 2019)

Attorneys

Ariel Brown
Randall Harrison NunnRandall H. Nunn, Attorney at Law, Petitioner
United States of America
Noel J. FranciscoSolicitor General, Respondent