murder-for-hire
7 cases — ← All topics
| Case | Title | Lower Court | Docketed | Status | Flags | Tags | Question Presented |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25-619 | Zhe Zhang, aka Zack v. United States | Second Circuit | 2025-12-01 | Denied | Response Waived | criminal-penalty disjunctive-language federal-criminal-law murder-for-hire sentencing statutory-interpretation | Whether the disjunctive language at 18 U.S.C. §1958(a) permits the district court to impose a sentence of death or life imprisonment or a fine or some… |
| 25-5649 | David Anthony Runyon v. United States | Fourth Circuit | 2025-09-16 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | crime-of-violence fourth-circuit murder-for-hire postconviction-relief sentencing-enhancement statutory-interpretation | Whether the Court should grant certiorari, vacate the Fourth Circuit's decision, and remand for further consideration in light of United States v. Tay… |
| 25-5223 | Burte Gucci Rhodes v. United States | Ninth Circuit | 2025-07-29 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | criminal-conviction interstate-commerce jury-instruction legal-sufficiency murder-for-hire procedural-error | Whether a conviction for murder-for-hire can properly be affirmed when the jury was instructed that it need not conclude an interstate facility was us… |
| 23-7462 | Michael Davis v. United States | Sixth Circuit | 2024-05-13 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | 18-usc-1958 channels-and-instrumentalities channels-of-interstate-commerce commerce-clause congressional-power instrumentalities-of-interstate-commerce interstate-commerce intrastate-activity murder-for-hire police-powers | Whether an indictment charging murder-for-hire in violation of 18 USC § 1958 by intrastate use of cellphones and an automobile exceeds the proper limi… |
| 22-6256 | Robert Gospodareck v. Alabama | Alabama | 2022-12-08 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | alabama-law assisted-suicide constitutional-law criminal-law murder-for-hire retroactive-application retroactivity statutory-interpretation | When Alabama first enacted Assisted Suicide legislation in 2017 which specifically provided that it amended existing law and also created a new crime,… |
| 21-1584 | Martin Louis Ballard v. United States | Fourth Circuit | 2022-06-23 | Denied | Response Waived | drug-conspiracy due-process fair-trial fifth-amendment ineffective-assistance ineffective-assistance-of-counsel mistrial murder-for-hire sixth-amendment | Is the right of Martin Ballard to due process of law under the Fifth Amendment and the right to a fair and impartial fact finder in his trial under th… |
| 20-7663 | Andre Watson v. United States | Sixth Circuit | 2021-04-06 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | commerce-clause constitutional-power criminal-law due-process federal-jurisdiction interstate-commerce jurisdictional-hook murder-for-hire tenth-amendment | Did the United States, under our federal-state jurisdiction as set out in our Constitution, fail to establish Watson was properly guilty of Use of Int… |