No. 24-6097

Alfredo Alvarado-Varela v. United States

Lower Court: Fifth Circuit
Docketed: 2024-12-09
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
Response WaivedIFP Experienced Counsel
Tags: almendarez-torres apprendi notice-clause prior-conviction-exception recidivism-enhancement sixth-amendment
Key Terms:
Securities
Latest Conference: 2025-01-10
Question Presented (AI Summary)

Whether the prior-conviction exception from Almendarez-Torres can be squared with the text of the Sixth Amendment's Notice Clause and the historical practices it codified, and whether Almendarez-Torres should be overruled in light of the historical record

Question Presented (OCR Extract)

question presented is: Whether the prior-conviction exception from Almendarez-Torres can be squared with the text of the Sixth Amendment’s Notice Clause and the historical practices it codified. I. The text and history are clear. In the Founding Era and immediately afterward, courts, prosecutors, and defendants in England and America treated the fact of a prior conviction necessary to satisfy a statutory recidivism enhancement as an element of an aggravated crime to be alleged in the indictment and proved to a jury at trial. The text of the Notice Clause codified this common-law practice. A crime’s “nature” included all allegations necessary to distinguish one statutory offense from another. A prior-conviction allegation served to differentiate between the offense applicable to first-time offenders and the one aimed at recidivists. The second question presented is: Whether, in light of the historical record, Almendarez-Torres should be overruled. i

Docket Entries

2025-01-13
Petition DENIED.
2024-12-19
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 1/10/2025.
2024-12-13
Waiver of United States of right to respond submitted.
2024-12-13
Waiver of right of respondent United States to respond filed.
2024-12-05
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due January 8, 2025)

Attorneys

Alfredo Alvarado-Varela
Taylor Wills Edwards BrownFederal Public Defender, N.D. Tex., Petitioner
Taylor Wills Edwards BrownFederal Public Defender, N.D. Tex., Petitioner
United States
Elizabeth B. PrelogarSolicitor General, Respondent
Elizabeth B. PrelogarSolicitor General, Respondent