No. 18-9003

Ariel Brown v. United States

Lower Court: Fifth Circuit
Docketed: 2019-04-29
Status: Denied
Type: IFP
Response WaivedIFP
Tags: and whether false allegations in a Presentence In burden-of-proof criminal-procedure due-process government-burden presentence-report sentencing sentencing-enhancement weapons-enhancement weapons-possession
Key Terms:
DueProcess
Latest Conference: 2019-05-23
Question Presented (from Petition)

1. When a defendant submits a sworn Declaration attached to her objections to a
Presentence Report, which denies certain key required elements of the 2-level
weapons enhancement under Sec. 2D1.1 (b)(1), and the Government has not
responded with some evidence to refute such sworn statements as part of its initial
burden to prove the weapons possession and temporal and spatial relationship, can the
defendant be enhanced, consistent with due process, without the Government having
met its initial burden?

2. Where a Presentence Investigation Report ("PSR") contains allegations of criminal
conduct by a defendant which are stated to be "false" by the district judge at
sentencing, but are not used in determining the sentence, is it error to include such
untrue allegations in the PSR despite the court's finding that they are false, without
either deletion of the allegations or notice to the Bureau of Prisons that such
allegations are false?

Question Presented (AI Summary)

When a defendant submits a sworn Declaration denying key elements of a weapons enhancement, can the defendant be enhanced without the Government meeting its initial burden?

Docket Entries

2019-05-28
Petition DENIED.
2019-05-08
DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/23/2019.
2019-05-03
Waiver of right of respondent United States of America to respond filed.
2019-04-24
Petition for a writ of certiorari and motion for leave to proceed in forma pauperis filed. (Response due May 29, 2019)

Attorneys

Ariel Brown
Randall Harrison NunnRandall H. Nunn, Attorney at Law, Petitioner
United States of America
Noel J. FranciscoSolicitor General, Respondent