Andres Fernando Cabezas v. United States
1. The Eleventh Circuit holds that a notice of appeal is a per se divestiture of a district court's jurisdiction over a motion for return of property under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41(g). No other circuit in the Court of Appeals adopts that rule of law. Does a district court have subject-matter jurisdiction to decide 41(g) motions for recovery of property that is unrelated to a criminal judgment on appeal?
2. Implicitly, the Eleventh Circuit resolved an issue of national importance -must the contents of a media storage device be forfeited separately from the storage device. The Eleventh Circuit resolved that question in a manner that conflicts with both the civil and criminal rules of procedure. Are the untainted contents of a multimedia storage device, such as an iPhone, forfeited when the storage device is forfeited or must the electronically-stored contents be forfeited separately and specifically?
Does a district court have subject-matter jurisdiction to decide 41(g) motions for recovery of property that is unrelated to a criminal judgment on appeal?