Appellate Law

CA1: First bends to help government prove negative in antique gun registration case

By S. COTUS

US v. Giambro, No. 08-1044 affirms a conviction for possessing an antique gun.  (He was acquitted of a number of state charges.)

The least interesting issue is under 26 U.S.C. § 5861(d), where the court holds that the defendant need not have specific knowledge of the registration requirement, but just knowledge of the statutory elements of the guns subject to the registration requirements.

More interesting is the admission of the ATF?s ?Certificates of Nonexistence? of a registration record.  The maker of the certificate testified.  The First?s analysis isn?t that satisfactory. It basically says ?other circuits have upheld their use? even though there used to be problems.

Finally, and without much analysis, the First says that it was fine for the District Court to exclude the testimony of an expert witness that had done some statistical analysis on the reliability of the ATF?s system of gun registration.  Because the First speaks in broad, general terms (and throws around words like ?Daubert,? it doesn?t seem like it was taking this issue seriously.

Full post as published by Appellate Law and Practice on October 02, 2008 (boomark / email).