SCOTUSblog by Amy Howe 11/22/2023
The justices will kick off the December argument session on Nov. 27 with oral argument in a pair of consolidated cases, Brown v. United States and Jackson v. United States, involving the Armed Career Criminal Act. The ACCA extends the minimum sentence – from 10 years to 15 – for an individual who had been convicted of a felony and possesses a firearm when that person has at least three “serious drug offenses.” The question before the justices is how to define “serious drug offense” for purposes of the ACCA. Eugene Jackson and Justin Rashaad Brown argue that the definition should incorporate the federal drug schedules that were in effect either when the individual committed the federal firearm offense (Jackson) or at the time of sentencing for that offense (Brown), while the federal government argues that it should instead incorporate the schedules that were in effect at the time of the state drug offenses.
On Tuesday, the justices will confront double jeopardy issues in the case of Damian McElrath, a Georgia man who was found not guilty by reason of insanity on one murder charge arising from the stabbing death of his mother, while he was found guilty but mentally ill on a different murder charge (as well as an aggravated assault charge).
On appeal, the Georgia Supreme Court threw out both of the jury’s verdicts and sent the case back for a new trial on all charges. It concluded that the verdict was “repugnant”: McElrath’s acquittal on one murder charge required the jury to find that he was insane when he killed his mother, but he could only be convicted on the other charges if the jury found that he was not insane.
When the case returned to the lower court, McElrath argued that the Constitution’s ban on double jeopardy barred the state from trying him again on the murder charge on which he had been acquitted. But the Georgia Supreme Court rejected that argument. It explained that a “repugnant” verdict is essentially “void” and therefore does not create a double jeopardy problem.
McElrath renews that argument in the Supreme Court, while the state defends the Georgia Supreme Court’s ruling. Under state law, Georgia contends, there was never a valid verdict in McElrath’s case, and he can therefore be retried.
The justices will then hear the first immigration case of the term. Under federal immigration law, the federal government can cancel the deportation of a non-permanent resident – that is, a non-U.S. citizen who has received permission to live in the United States on a temporary basis – if that person can show, among other things, that deportation would create an “exceptional or extremely unusual hardship” for an immediate family member who is either a permanent resident or a U.S. citizen.
Federal law also generally prohibits federal courts from reviewing decisions about whether to cancel deportation, except for “questions of law.” In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that the term “questions of law” includes a mixed question of law and fact, such as the application of a legal standard to undisputed facts.
More:
https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/11/major-oxycontin-case-headlines-december-session/
