Pawz,

Did he enter a guilty plea and get more time than he was expecting?

I can tell you from my own personal experience that I would have been better off had my attorney not filed a direct appeal on my behalf. By the time I got to prison where there were resources for me to educate myself and realize how much they screwed me over it was pretty much too late for me to win any relief on my case because he had screwed up the argument that would have reduced my sentence.

The major challenge in today's climate is that after 1996's Antiterorrism and Effective Death Penalty Act (which was enacted as a result of Timothy McVey's bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City) inmates now only have one year from the date their direct appeal is final in order to file a Section 2255 motion attacking the constitutionality of their sentence. By the time most inmates get to their designated prisons and get over the shell shock that period is gone.

What was the focus of the appeal? I can give more insight if I know that information - at this point it really doesn't matter if you share the details since he has already been found guilty. I wouldn't say names or anything, but it should be fine to share the gist of the appeal.

He is a first time offender. His Public Defender convinced him to plead guilty to all three charges; I think it was distribution/possesion/trafficing on the Internet. Two of the three charges stemmed from 2007 the other was from 2009. It took two years before he was sentenced. He was on house arrest from 2010-2011. Then put in a holding cell for the last year. All three carried a 5 year miminum sentence. The Judge wanted to make an example out of him, so he sentenced him to 15 years. I know the Judge was following the guidlines, however I also know the Judge had the ability to go above or below the minimum sentencing. Since this was my husbands first time ever being convicted of a crime he did what he thought was right and cooperated with the authroities. Our minister and our good friend both testified; along with countless character letters.

In the end he was sentenced on 28OCT11. His attorney filed for the appeal in December and he was suppose to argue in front of the panal of Judges last Friday, 20APR12. However I learned from the Public Defender's office that the argument was cancelled. Unfortunately my husband's attorney has not shown much remorse, nor has he contacted my husband. So I am doing my best to stay on top of things. My husband is utilizing the prision law library and is receiving assistance from an inmate who has knowlege regarding sentencing and appeals. I am guessing at this point the panal of Judges are now just waiting for each other to finish reading over the information submitted in order to make their decision. A request to reduce sentencing was submitted. At this point is is a waiting game. With no money to hire an attorney, I feel helpless.

Thank you kindly for your support. It is nice to have someone to talk to about his situation.

First thing you can do is begin to educate yourself. First of all you need to familiarize yourself with the facts of his case, what was he convicted of, the statutes that those convictions fall under, the sentencing guidelines that surround those statues. If you feel that your lawyer isn't working for you or your husband, talk to them, get involved, and get them to do their job, which is TO TEACH people the ins and outs of the legal system. If you feel as if you are not getting service, even Public Defenders have bosses, talk to theirs. It is unethical to be the way you describe and not really give much of an explination, while not against any rules, but is just not good business/legal practice.

Money is helpful in hiriing an attorney, but at this stage, the amount of money you would need to spend is as much as a new Lexus, which is out of range for most folks that have made it through one set of legal proceedings, let alone two where the second is atleast double to triple the price.

YOU CAN LEARN this, the information is online and it is an Open Record which by Federal law they need to supply you when you ask. There are things you can do, but first is to edcuate yourself. A great many of us have been in this for years, and it seems like you could never know as much as we have learned. That is just not true. I started out a person that thought like the vast majority of people in this country, that if you are arrested and convicted you MUST be guilty cause the legal system is NEVER wrong. NOT! I have learned since the laws of WI and all thing that are going to touch me and my husband, and you can too... we all started somewhere...

Thank Wisconsin. Sometimes I feel if we have come this far...there is nothing left for me to do. That if it wasn't done in the begining, then it how can it be fixed now. I truly appreciate your motivation.

Pawz, if you know the specifics about what was actually argued on appeal we can assist in greater detail. If you aren't able to share that then there really isn't a whole lot more I can offer. I agree with Wisconsin that the most important thing is educating yourselves on the statutes of conviction and the guideline sections that correspond to those statutes.

We can help you find them if you don't know how to do so, but we would need to know what statutes were plead to at a minimum. If you want to share specifics by private messaging me I'm more than happy to assist if you don't feel comfortable doing so in an open thread, although at this point you don't really have anything to lose by doing so.

The problem with the Section 2255 motion is that, and since my son is Federal, it goes back to the judge who sentenced him and it opens up possibilities of him getting more time.
That's what I've been told. Isn't that correct?

They will say that - but it isn't really true. 99.9% of the time the sentencing judge summarily rejects the 2255 petition, which is then appealed to the Circuit Court of Appeals. That is where you have at least a chance for relief.

Technically yes - the sentencing judge COULD simply accept the 2255 and force the defendant back into a position pre-guilty plea. But I personally have never seen that happen.

Terry, this is Florida. We thought he wouldn't go to prison because it was obvious that he downloaded these cp by accident. But they still fucked him over.
Our attorney tells me a definite no. If they accept the 2255 then you have to prove innocence all over again and the prosecutor and judge both knew they were ruining his life. The judge told him that he's young and when he gets out of prison he'll be fine. I'd like to see the judge deal with a lifetime on the list.

I mean. The Ciruit court of Appeals is still Florida, correct?

If the original case was federal, which as I recall your son's was, then it goes back to the sentencing court - then an appeal from the sentencing court would go to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Actual innocence isn't always required - it just depends on the argument being made.

I will say this - after entering a guilty plea it is EXTREMELY rare to receive any sort of relief at any level of the appellate process.

We had a good defense. Forensics which proved our case, but the prosecutor told the judge to put the forensics aside and he did.
I just want to make sure I'm not missing an opportunity. And he 'confessed' as they call it. They took his confession, cut it down and turned it into a small chapter about 10 sentences long . Used words he never did and used them repeatedly thruout different paperwork and made it seem like he really spoke them.
I'm putting together a Presidential Pardon, altho he's not supposed to ask for 1 until 5 years after he's released and they see 'how he does when he's living amongts real humans'. .but there's a waiver so I'm taking that route. I just can't see any other way out.
I keep going back to trying to use the forced and faked confession. Without that they didn't have anything. .but can't find an attorney to help me with that. So.. I'm going to stay away from the 2255.

Yeah - the problem with a guilty plea is that you waive your right to appeal those sort of issues. The bars are really high to overcome to get any sort of relief either on direct appeal or on a Habeas Corpus. At least it is only 30 months. I know that is little consolation, but I know many guys serving 20-30 years + in federal prison on cases that have since been ruled completely unconstitutional by SCOTUS - problem is they didn't make their decision retroactive.

Anyway, just continue to do what you're doing - be there for him. It really does mean the world to him - I know.

All of this scares the crap out of me, my son has yet to be charged by the feds, but we know he will be. Im taking notes though. Pretty sure Im gonna go home (Im at work right now) and cry my eyes out cause I know my son will get 10-45 yrs even with our high priced, fancy attorney.

Terry, you are invaluable to this group-God bless you. Pawz, keep working, learning and trying.

This drives me crazy, my husbands case is alot like yours Nakohichi!! My husband was in our basement where the computer being questioned by the FBI (after they broke down our door as no one was home) and they asked him if he downloaded porn, he said yes then they asked him about the CP and he said a couple of months ago he downloaded about 40 videos (mind you they are about 2 min each) of what he thought was regular porn, but there was about 10 CP videos he said he opened them, was not what he was looking for and deleted them and went to the next. Then they said he shared them on Limewire (by the way he had no clue he was doing that) at the end of this there was only one CP video and they never found it on his computer, said just reminence but they had the screen print of his computer that day, so he got 2 felony counts and in PA if you have more then one count it is automatically lifetime, (you would think that was double jepordy) although we were never told this and all his paperworks says 10 years. And this continues to happen to people!!!!!!

In the federal system you have 1 year from the date of sentencing to file an appeal due to incompetence of your attorney, but that means you have to have another attorney to file the appeal. I'm not sure you can appeal with a plea bargain either. We went in with an open plea so we did not lose our ability to appeal, but we got the minimum so we felt very good and did not want to chance putting the 20 years back on the table even though our attorney said that we had just seen "the closest we would see to a federal judge crying for an appeal." My husband's charges were Receipt of CP and they were all Limewire.

Our attorney wasn't incompetant. The judge and prosecutor were.
I just found out about that Open Plea when my son called to tell me he should have done that. But that leaves it all up to the judge and I don't think we could have used our forensics.. which helped a bit.
I've met so many people who downloaded these things from Limewire.
I'd be into starting a list but I doubt if anyone would want to be on it. Maybe find a lawyer who would do a class action suit or something for this group of Limewire CP downloaders. but that won't happen. . it should, but won't.