Two opinions and two wins for criminal defendants from the Supreme Court

Continuing its trend of being the most pro-defendant appellate court in the nation on sentencing issues, the Supreme Court issued two opinions this morning and both involve wins for defendants.  Here are the basic details from Lyle Denniston in this helpful SCOTUSblog post:

The Court has released the opinion in Chambers v. United States (06-11206), on whether a failure to report to prison is the equivalent of escape for purposes of enhanced sentencing under the Armed Career Criminal Act.  The ruling below, which found for the government, is reversed and remanded.  Justice Breyer wrote the majority opinion.  Justice Alito filed an opinion concurring in the judgment, in which Justice Thomas joined. The opinion is available here.

The Court has released the opinion in Jimenez v. Quarterman (07-6984), on whether the reinstatement of an appeal under Texas law restarts the one-year deadline to file a habeas petition under federal law.  The ruling below, which found for the state, is reversed and remanded. Justice Thomas wrote the opinion for a unanimous Court. The opinion is available here.

Chambers is, of course, the more important opinion for federal sentencing fans, and I may have some commentary on the Court’s recent significant ACCA work in future posts.