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Interstate Use of Cell Phone to Arrange Murder-For-Hire is Use of an Interstate Communications Facility

By Shari Allison

US v. Means, No. 07-7112, 10/24/08 - Defendant and his girlfriend conspired to murder her husband and sought out a hit man. The person defendant solicited for the job ratted him out and the FBI got involved. It recorded meetings and cellphone conversations. Everything happened in Oklahoma. Defendant was prosecuted for, and pled guilty to, conspiring to use an interstate communications facility (the cellphone network) in a murder-for-hire scheme, in violation of 18 USC Sec. 1958(a) and 18 USC Sec. 371. He took no direct appeal. He did, however, timely file a Sec. 2255 motion based on his claim that, at the time of the offense, his actions did not violate Sec. 1958(a) because all activity was intrastate, and he therefore committed no crime merely by using his cellphone...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tenth Circuit Blog on October 27, 2008 (boomark / email).