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Appellate Law

: Appellate Law and Practice

CA1: another Puerto Rico drug case

By S. COTUS

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US v. Malpica-Garcia, Nos. 05-2492, 05-2493. This case begins by telling us everything we ever wanted to know about drug dealing in Puerto Rico.

A defendant raises a sufficiency claim to a conspiracy charge. What is interesting about this is that the defendant makes a pretty good argument: that he was just friends with the dealers. But the government says ?we got videos that show he was more than a bystander.? Maybe the government had some other witnesses. Good enough for the First. The First goes on to explain all the things that the government doesn?t have to prove to send a person to jail for life. Conspiracy is such a great tool in the war on poverty.

Another interesting issue is the fact that one of the defendants apparently had a falling out with a co-conspirator. That, according to the First, doesn?t extinguish the conspiracy.

The government wins a FRE 613 argument (regarding the use of some government agents to impeach others), because, the First says that he didn?t develop it enough.

Regarding sentencing, the First says that the full amount of drugs were not attributed to the defendant. [The rest to come]

Full post as published by Appellate Law and Practice on September 08, 2008 (boomark / email).