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Criminal Procedure — appeal

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//August 15, 2014//

Criminal Procedure — appeal

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//August 15, 2014//

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U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit

Criminal

Criminal Procedure — appeal

A motion to reconsider the sentence does not extend the time for filing a notice of appeal.

“This case is governed by statutes and the federal rules of procedure, not any common-law practice. Townsend cites no statute permitting this sort of reconsideration, so under the plain text of § 3582(c), the court was authorized to proceed only within the constraints of Rule 35. And according to Rule 4(b)(5) of the Rules of Appellate Procedure, proceedings under Rule 35 do not suspend the time for filing a notice of appeal. See United States v. Dotz, 455 F.3d 644, 648 (6th Cir. 2006) (holding that motions for reconsideration of a sentence, ‘regardless of creative characterization,’ do not suspend the time for filing an appeal because ‘there is simply no such thing as a “motion to reconsider” an otherwise final sentence’). Thus, Townsend’s motion did not affect the time limit for filing a notice of appeal. Townsend’s notice was eight days late. Because the government has raised the timeliness issue, this appeal must be dismissed as untimely.”

Dismissed.

13-2677 U.S. v. Townsend

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Chang, J., Sykes, J.

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