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Mohammed Jabateh v. United States

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, No. 18-1981 · judgment September 8, 2020


Certiorari denied · October 4, 2021
Pre-decision estimate: 13% cert probability (95% interval 8%–19%)

Before the decision, about 3× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a Third Circuit decision below, counsel with five or more prior petitions here, and a circuit split argued in the petition.

Question presented

Petitioner was indicted, tried, convicted and consecutively sentenced to lengthy terms of imprisonment. On direct appeal, the court agreed that his charged conduct was not prohibited by the statute invoked in two of the counts. Yet the court held that this conclusion, while not doubtful as a matter of statutory construction, failed to establish an error that was “plain” within the meaning of Federal Criminal Rule 52(b). The Question Presented is: Does the plain error rule permit affirmance of a federal criminal conviction and sentence based on conduct that concededly does not violate the charged statute?

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Peter Goldberger

For respondent
Brian H. Fletcher
Acting Solicitor General

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Proceedings

  1. Oct 04 2021
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Jul 21 2021
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 9/27/2021.
  3. Jul 15 2021
    Reply of petitioner Mohammed Jabateh filed.
  4. Jul 01 2021
    Brief of respondent United States in opposition filed.
  5. May 07 2021
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is further extended to and including July 1, 2021.
  6. May 06 2021
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from June 1, 2021 to July 1, 2021, submitted to The Clerk.
  7. Apr 23 2021
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including June 1, 2021. See Rule 30.1.
  8. Apr 22 2021
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from April 30, 2021 to May 31, 2021, submitted to The Clerk.
  9. Mar 26 2021
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due April 30, 2021)