United States Ninth Circuit

In an appeal from a judgment of the district court convicting defendant-inmate of assault with a dangerous weapon and possession of contraband in prison (a "shank"), conviction and sentencing are upheld where: 1) the defendant failed to make a prima-facie case of self defense so as to entitle him the an instruction on the defense; 2) the court's limitations on the cross-examination of a treating physician was not a violation of the Confrontation Clause; and 3) a court's failure to vary from a guidelines range sentence to compensate for the inclusion of recency points after Amendment 742 had been proposed but before it was adopted does not render a sentence substantively unreasonable.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/13/2011
• Published 10/13/2011

Judges

• GOULD

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Harvinder S. Anand, Elizabeth Newman