Appeals - Habeas Corpus - Post-conviction Relief
As of May 6, 2014, Mr. Kent has been counsel of record on over 521 federal and state criminal appeals. His appellate
practice has repeatedly attracted national attention. Most notably,
in 1993 Mr. Kent argued Terry Lynn Stinson v. United States before
the United States Supreme Court on behalf of his client Terry Lynn Stinson.
The Stinson case determined that the crime of felon in possession
of a firearm was not a "crime of violence" that could be used to enhance
Mr. Stinson's sentence as a "career offender" which requires two prior
crimes of violence. Mr. Kent won the Stinson case at
the Supreme Court by a unanimous decision. Several thousand petitions
are presented to the Supreme Court each year and less than one hundred
are ever accepted for review. Very few cases are won by criminal
defendants at the Supreme Court level. [My proudest moment was seeing Stinson
cited in both Blakely v. Washington in June 2004 and in United States
v. Booker in January 2005, the cases that led to the downfall of the federal
sentencing guidelines.]
He has also had one case, United States v. William James Thigpen,
taken en banc by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which means
the case was deemed to be of such importance that all of the active judges
of the court of appeals, not simply a three judge panel, heard oral argument
and issued the decision.
Another of Mr. Kent's significant appellate victories was in the case of United States
v. Willie Washington. In that case a joint federal state drug
interdiction team had boarded a Greyhound Bus at the Jacksonville Greyhound
Bus Terminal and inspected the tickets, identification and luggage of all
the passengers. The officers asked for consent to inspect before
conducting any search, and Mr. Kent's client actually consented to the
search. A large quantity of cocaine was found and the client was
sentenced to five years in federal prison. On appeal, however, Mr.
Kent successfully argued that his client's consent was obtained by implied
coercion, focusing particularly on the officer's failure to have advised
his client that he had the right to refuse to consent. A divided
panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Mr. Kent's argument
and reversed the judgment of conviction. The case was dismissed and
the client was released from prison. The Washington case attracted
national attention. It is the subject of a law review article in
the March 1999 Harvard Law Review, Volume 112, Issue 5.
Mr. Kent represented on direct appeal William J.
McCorkle, a major real estate telemarketer, whose trial counsel was F. Lee
Bailey - one of the very last trials for the famed criminal defense
attorney. In the McCorkle case Mr. Kent won a resentencing for Mr.
McCorkle based on a plain error jury instruction error involving multiple
objects of a money laundering conspiracy and the resulting misapplication of the
sentencing guidelines to the money laundering counts.
Another interesting success in 2003 was the granting of a
motion to withdraw plea based on a Glover v. United States prejudice
argument. That is, Mr. Kent argued that the client's prior trial attorney
had misadvised the client on the potential application of the sentencing
guidelines to his sentencing, with the result being that the guideline range was
going to be approximately 6 months higher than predicted. Despite the
careful warnings of the Magistrate Judge that misadvice about the application of
the guidelines would not be the basis to allow a withdrawal of the plea, the
district court was persuaded, in what may have been a case of first impression,
that such misadvice mandates the right to withdraw a guilty plea. United
States v. X.
Mr. Kent also handles Florida state criminal
appeals. In 2003 one of his notable victories was the reversal after trial
of a 22 year conviction and sentence in a major cocaine trafficking case, Reyneldon
Davis v. State of Florida. The conviction was reversed on the basis of
an illegal roadside search that resulted in the seizure of over two kilograms of
cocaine from Mr. Kent's client's vehicle. On remand the case was
settled for a sentence of time served on a plea to a lesser included offense, a
plea deal that was the result of the suppression of the cocaine.
Other notable appellate victories have included:
United States v. Ronnie A. Bell. In this case, the convictions
of the administrator of the Jacksonville International Longshoremen's Association
Pension and Trust Fund for embezzling over half a million dollars from
the pension fund and a "related" Container Royalty Fund were set aside
as a result of a jurisdictional argument Mr. Kent raised, concerning the
scope of federal criminal jurisdiction in ERISA related fund cases.
This case was reported in the national ERISA reporter as well as in the
official reports of the court of appeals.
In United States v. Charles Young, Mr. Kent succeeded in having
a $1,500,000 criminal restitution order imposed against a former branch
manager of a national bank set aside by the Court of Appeals on a technical
argument related to the scope of authority of a district court judge to
order restitution.
In United States v. Richard Nixon, et al., Mr. Kent succeeded in
obtaining post-conviction relief, resulting in their release from federal
prison, for Richard Nixon and derivatively certain of his co-defendants,
including Emmett Manns, all of whom had been convicted in the notorious
Henry Manns Drug Conspiracy case represented by other counsel.
In Dwayne Keyton v. State of Florida, Mr. Kent succeeded in obtaining
the release from state custody of a defendant sentenced in connection with
a drive by shooting-conspiracy to murder case, on federal due process grounds.
Federal and State Trial Cases
Before focusing his practice on appeals and post-conviction relief, Mr. Kent
handled literally hundreds of Florida state criminal cases and over 400 federal criminal cases
as an Assistant Federal Defender before going into private practice.
He has taken over twenty federal criminal cases to trial. Mr. Kent
has obtained not guilty verdicts or equivalent dispositions
in many different types of cases, including crack cocaine, bank fraud and embezzlement, false statement cases, and
others.
Mr. Kent's trial cases today are generally limited to
representation where development of an appellate issue, such as a motion to
suppress or dismiss, may be desired, or, to the sentencing phase of the case, in
anticipation of appeal.
Forfeiture
If your case involves forfeiture issues, we will refer
you to forfeiture counsel.
Complex Corporate and Tax Experience
Mr. Kent's first nine years practice as an attorney was spent in a large,
corporate law firm environment, primarily at Rogers & Wells, a New
York based international law firm, in its Los Angeles office. As
a senior associate at Rogers & Wells [now known as Clifford Chance Rogers
& Wells, the world's largest law firm], Mr. Kent handled major corporate
transactions, focusing on tax advantaged investments and collateralized
security offerings. His practice took him to all the major cities
of the United States, representing national and international corporate
and individual investors and corporate and individual lenders in multi-million
dollar transactions.
Obviously each case is determined on its own facts and
the law that may apply to those facts. Success in the cases noted
above is no guarantee that Mr. Kent could obtain a similar result in your
case.
The hiring of a lawyer is an important decision
that should not be based solely upon advertisements. Before
you decide, ask us to send you free written information about our qualifications
and experience.
Free
Initial Consultation