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Criminal Law and Procedure Decisions of the
October 1998-1999 Supreme Court Term

by Solomon L. Wisenberg of Ross, Dixon & Bell, L.L.P.

The October 1998 Supreme Court Term saw an odd mix of results in criminal law and procedure rulings. By and large the Court showed a strong preference for finality in criminal cases, particularly death penalty cases, rejecting several habeas based claims of capital defendants. With two notable exceptions, the Court's Fourth Amendment rulings favored the Government and continued to produce mostly bright-line results in search and seizure cases. Officers were prevented from searching incident to citation and the State was prohibited from bringing the media circus along for Fourth Amendment raids. The Court made the significant discovery that bagging cocaine in the apartment of a recent business acquaintance does not give you a Fourth Amendment expectation of privacy in her apartment. And one more thing. If you are going with your client to the grand jury, leave those incriminating letters at home and bring along an associate because you can and will be searched. They may even seize your car.

The Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination was extended to sentencing hearings as was the defendant's right not to have the trier of fact draw adverse inferences from its invocation and the Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause was easily applied to prevent the admission into evidence of an accomplice's out of court confession which also happened to inculpate the defendant. Federal substantive criminal statutes were generally construed against the Government, except for the intent requirements of the carjacking statute and the venue prerequisites of 924(c)(1). White collar statutes continued to enjoy a kind of strict scrutiny. A materiality requirement was imported into the mail, wire and bank fraud statutes and the illegal gratuity statute was interpreted as requiring a link between a proffered gift and the specific official act for or on account of which the gift was proffered.

The materiality requirement under Brady v. Maryland was rather vigorously insisted upon despite a clear case of suppressed impeachment evidence, and allegedly shaky jury sentencing instructions in capital cases were given short shrift. This Court was in no rush to assume that any error actually caused harm, and if one theme seemed to permeate the criminal law opinions of this Term it was pragmatism.

Despite the best efforts of Justices Scalia and Thomas to bring the Court back to a textual/historical approach to constitutionally based criminal law and procedure issues, the Court majorities tended to be shifting coalitions of balancers and standpatters who were largely not interested in critically examining, much less challenging any of the Court's own precedent. Herewith are summaries of the Court's criminal law and procedure holdings from the October 1998 Term. [The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of David White and Jennifer Noland in preparing these summaries.]

STRICKLER V. GREEN

Brady Violation-Cause and Prejudice for Failure to Release

NATHANIEL JONES W. UNITED STATES

Carjacking-Elements of the Offense

HOLLOWAY V. UNITED STATES

Carjacking-Required Intent

LILLY V. VIRGINIA

Confrontation Clause-Declarations Against Penal Interest

RICHARDSON V. UNITED STATES

Continuing Criminal Enterprise-Elements of the Offense

HADDLE V. GARRISON

Federal Civil Rights-Obstruction

LOUIS JONES V. UNITED STATES

Federal Death Penalty Act-Jury Instructions

MARYLAND V. DYSON

Fourth Amendment-Automobile Exception

FLORIDA V. WHITE

Fourth Amendment-Automobile Exception

WYOMING V. HOUGHTON

Fourth Amendment-Automobile Exception

MINNESOTA V. CARTER

Fourth Amendment-Expectation of Privacy

CITY OF WEST COVINA v. PERKINS

Fourth Amendment-Return of Seized property

KNOWLES V. IOWA

Fourth Amendment-Search Incident to Arrest

WILSON V. LAYNE

Fourth Amendment-Unreasonable Search

HANLON V. BERGER

Fourth Amendment-Unreasonable Search

CONN V. GABBERT

Fourteenth Amendment-Interference with Attorney at Grand Jury

MITCHELL V. UNITED STATES

Fifth Amendment Privilege Against Self-Incrimination-Sentencing Hearings

PEGUERO V. UNITED STATES

Guilty Pleas-Required Warnings

O'SULLIVAN V. BOERCKEL

Habeas Corpus-Exhaustion of Remedies/Procedural Default

CALDERON V. COLEMAN

Habeas Corpus-Harmless Constitutional Trial Error

STEWART V. LAGRAND

Habeas Corpus-Waiver and Procedural Default

UNITED STATES V. SUN DIAMOND GROWERS OF CALIFORNIA

Illegal Gratuities-Required Intent

NEDER V. UNITED STATES

Mail Wire and Bank Fraud-Materiality

UNITED STATES V. RODRIGUEZ-MORENO

Venue-18 U.S.C. §924(c)(1)