UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Albert Dean CAIN, Jr., Defendant-Appellant

130 F.3d 381, 97 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 8723, 97 Daily Journal DAR 14145, 1997 U.S. App. LEXIS 32749, 1997 WL 716846
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedNovember 19, 1997
Docket94-50518
StatusPublished
Cited by48 cases

This text of 130 F.3d 381 (UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Albert Dean CAIN, Jr., Defendant-Appellant) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Albert Dean CAIN, Jr., Defendant-Appellant, 130 F.3d 381, 97 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 8723, 97 Daily Journal DAR 14145, 1997 U.S. App. LEXIS 32749, 1997 WL 716846 (9th Cir. 1997).

Opinions

WALLACE, Circuit Judge.

Cain appeals from his conviction for possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). The district court had jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3231. We exercise jurisdiction over this timely appeal pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3742(a) and 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We affirm.

I

On December 2, 1992, Cain met Connie Brown, Angelo Morris, and Douglas and James Burnside at the Ontario Airport in Ontario, California, and drove them to a Rial-to, California, residence. Soon thereafter, Cain and Douglas Burnside drove to a nearby Price Club store and parked next to a 1983 Mercury. Carlos Valdez-Verdugo and Francisco Contreras-Lopez emerged from the Mercury, walked to Cain’s vehicle, and exchanged packages with its occupants. Later that day, police officers stopped Brown, Morris, and the Burnsides, and arrested them upon discovery on Brown of a package of cocaine weighing approximately three kilograms. Valdez-Verdugo and Contreras-Lopez were arrested the next day, in possession of over $65,000 in cash. A federal grand jury indicted Cain on one count charging him with possession with the intent to distribute approximately three kilograms of cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). A jury subsequently found Cain guilty as charged in the indictment.

The statute under which Cain was convicted states that “it shall be unlawful for any person knowingly or intentionally [ ] to manufacture, distribute, or dispense, or possess with intent to manufacture, distribute, or dispense, a controlled substance.” 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). We have interpreted this statutory offense as having three elements: “[t]he government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant (1) knowingly, (2) possessed the cocaine, (3) with an intent to distribute it.” United States v. Ocampo, 937 F.2d 485, 488 (9th Cir.1991). Often, as here, the three are combined into two elements: knowing possession and with intent to distribute.

Cain argues that the jointly proposed jury instructions misdefined the element, “possession.” In general, a person is in “possession” of something “if the person knows of its presence and has physical control of it, or has the power and intention to control it.” Manual of Model Criminal Jury Instructions for the Ninth Circuit, § 3.16 (1992 ed.) (emphasis added); see generally United States v. Chambers, 918 F.2d 1455, 1459 (9th Cir.1990) (discussing actual and constructive possession).

In contrast, the jointly proposed jury instructions stated that “[a] person has possession of something if that person knows of its presence, has physical control over it, or has the power and intention to control it.” Cain contends that the omitted “and” combined with the disjunctive phrasing permitted the [383]*383jury to convict him without finding every necessary element. Because he may have been deprived of the right to a jury adjudication of all facts essential to a finding of guilt, he charges error and requests that his conviction be reversed.

II

The attorneys representing both the government and Cain signed the document submitting the instructions. The principal issue before us is how we classify the alleged error. The government argues any error was waived and thus unreviewable. See United States v. Perez, 116 F.3d 840, 844 (9th Cir.1997) (en banc) (Perez). In addition, the government argues that even if not waived, any forfeited error should be reviewed under our plain error analysis. See id. Cain contends that plain error analysis is appropriate.

In Perez, we held that a defendant did not waive his objection to a jury instruction when he submitted an instruction which followed the Manual of Model Criminal Jury Instructions for the Ninth Circuit, but which did not reflect the requirement of a recent ease, of which both parties’ counsel and the court were unaware. Id. at 845-46. We applied plain error analysis because there was “no evidence that [the defendants] affirmatively acted to relinquish a known right.” Id. at 845.

Here, it can be argued that Cain was not personally aware of the defect, and that would not be surprising as there is no indication he has been trained in the law. However, “[w]e have long held that jury instructions may be waived by a defendant’s attorney.” Id. at 845 n. 7, citing United States v. Staufer, 38 F.3d 1103, 1109 n. 4 (9th Cir.1994).

Cain’s attorney’s signature clearly appears on the joint request for proposed instructions. In the joint request, both he and opposing counsel wrote that they “respectfully request that the court include the attached instructions in its charge to the jury. The instructions are submitted in the sequence in which the government and defendant propose that they be read to the jury.” There is no dispute that both counsel signed and filed the proposed instructions request. Both parties are, therefore, responsible for them and must bear the legal consequences.

We cannot accept the proposition that the defense lawyer’s signature on the jointly proposed instructions was a meaningless or perfunctory formality. Rather, Cain’s attorney, through his signature and joint filing, represented to the court that he had read the instructions, that he had studied them, and that, to the best of his knowledge, they represented the current state of the law. When an attorney signs a jury instruction proposal, he certifies to the court, as an officer of that court, that the instructions are legally correct. In other contexts, we have recognized that an attorney’s signature carries great legal consequences. See, e.g., In re Rainbow Magazine, Inc., 77 F.3d 278, 282-83 (9th Cir.1996) (attorney’s signature renders attorney and client sanctionable for filing bad-faith papers in bankruptcy court); Giebelhaus v. Spindrift Yachts, 938 F.2d 962, 964-66 & n. 2 (9th Cir.1991) (applying Rule 11 sanctions only to lawyers who actually sign pleadings and requiring actual signature, not mere typewritten name). We therefore apply the waiver analysis of Perez to action and inaction of Cain’s attorney.

In Staufer, we deemed an objection waived when (1) Staufer “proposed the instruction to which he ...

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130 F.3d 381, 97 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 8723, 97 Daily Journal DAR 14145, 1997 U.S. App. LEXIS 32749, 1997 WL 716846, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-of-america-plaintiff-appellee-v-albert-dean-cain-jr-ca9-1997.