United States v. Braden

328 F. Supp. 3d 785
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Tennessee
DecidedSeptember 17, 2018
DocketNo. 3:15-cr-00088
StatusPublished

This text of 328 F. Supp. 3d 785 (United States v. Braden) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Braden, 328 F. Supp. 3d 785 (M.D. Tenn. 2018).

Opinion

WAVERLY D. CRESHAW, JR., CHIEF UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

What began as a 3-count criminal case against Reginald Johnson ballooned into a 31-count, 6-Defendant case with the return of the Second Superseding Indictment (Doc. No. 67) on June 27, 2016. On February *78728, 2018, a Third Superseding Indictment (Doc. No. 481) was returned that increased the number of counts to 39, but reduced the number of defendants by one because Santez Bradford had pled guilty to charges contained in the Second Superseding Indictment Since then, Johnson and Aweis Haji-Mohamed entered pleas of guilt, and Marquis Brandon was acquitted on some charges and convicted on other charges after a jury trail. That leaves Charles Braden who has filed several Motion in relation to his trial that is scheduled to begin on December 4, 2018.

I. Motion in Limine To Exclude Evidence of Co-Defendant's Statements and or Confessions (Doc. No. 550)

By way of this motion, Braden requests "that all pre arrest and post arrest, incriminatory statements by co-defendants Marquis Brandon and Aweis Haji-Mohamed made to any Government witness be excluded from evidence at trial." (Doc. No. 550 at 2). In doing so, he anticipates that the Government intends to call Ernest Eddie as a witness at trial who is going to tell the jury about a conspiracy to commit a robbery that was never reported to the police, never investigated, and for which the gun was never found. Braden contends it is "likely" that Eddie "will provide multiple statements by codefendant Aweis Muhammed [sic] about the conspiracy which Defendant Braden will be unable to cross examining as he is a non testifying codefendant in this case." (Id. ). He therefore request that any such testimony be excluded at trial based upon Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968).

In response, the Government neither admits nor denies that Eddie will be called at trial. If he is, the Government has recognized its obligations under Bruton, as well as the requirements for admitting a co-conspirator's statements.

"The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment guarantees the right of a criminal defendant 'to be confronted with the witnesses against him,' and this 'includes the right to cross-examine witnesses.' " Cruz v. New York, 481 U.S. 186, 187-89, 107 S.Ct. 1714, 95 L.Ed.2d 162 (1987) (citation omitted). In Bruton, the Supreme Court held that a defendant is deprived of that right when a co-defendant's incriminating confession is introduced at their joint trial, even if the jury is instructed to consider that confession only against the co-defendant. The decision was grounded on the recognition that

there are some contexts in which the risk that the jury will not, or cannot, follow instructions is so great, and the consequences of failure so vital to the defendant, that the practical and human limitations of the jury system cannot be ignored .... Such a context is presented here, where the powerfully incriminating extrajudicial statements of a codefendant, who stands side-by-side with the defendant, are deliberately spread before the jury in a joint trial.

Bruton, 391 U.S. at 135-136, 88 S.Ct. 1620. Thus, the Bruton rule, as it has come to be known, teaches that "[w]here two or more defendants are tried jointly, ... the pretrial confession of one of them that implicates the others is not admissible against the others unless the confessing defendant waives his Fifth Amendment rights so as to permit cross-examination." Cruz, 481 U.S. at 190, 107 S.Ct. 1714. While Bruton involved a joint trial, the rule derived therefrom also applies where the declarant is unavailable at trial and has not previously been subjected to cross-examination about the statement. Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 54, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004) ; Nelson v. O'Neil, 402 U.S. 622, 626, 91 S.Ct. 1723, 29 L.Ed.2d 222 (1971) ; United States v. Ramos-Cardenas, 524 F.3d 600, 609 (5th Cir. 2008).

*788Despite the breadth of the rule, the Supreme Court, in Richardson v. Marsh, 481 U.S. 200, 208, 107 S.Ct. 1702, 95 L.Ed.2d 176 (1987), limited its reach to statements that were "incriminating on [their face] and expressly implicated the co-defendant." That is, "a nontestifying codefendant's statement must do more than incriminate by implication to violate the Confrontation Clause." United States v. Alkufi, 636 F. App'x 323, 334 (6th Cir. 2016). "Cases interpreting Bruton

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Related

Bruton v. United States
391 U.S. 123 (Supreme Court, 1968)
Nelson v. O'NEIL
402 U.S. 622 (Supreme Court, 1971)
Cruz v. New York
481 U.S. 186 (Supreme Court, 1987)
Richardson v. Marsh
481 U.S. 200 (Supreme Court, 1987)
Crawford v. Washington
541 U.S. 36 (Supreme Court, 2004)
United States v. De La Paz-Rentas
613 F.3d 18 (First Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Christopher Sutton
387 F. App'x 595 (Sixth Circuit, 2010)
Jones v. Basinger
635 F.3d 1030 (Seventh Circuit, 2011)
Larry Campbell v. United States
415 F.2d 356 (Sixth Circuit, 1969)
United States v. Richard D. Enright
579 F.2d 980 (Sixth Circuit, 1978)
United States v. Juanita Kendricks
623 F.2d 1165 (Sixth Circuit, 1980)
United States v. Chucks Emuegbunam
268 F.3d 377 (Sixth Circuit, 2001)
United States v. Samuel Alcantar, Elias Real-Flores.
271 F.3d 731 (Eighth Circuit, 2001)
United States v. George Mooneyham
473 F.3d 280 (Sixth Circuit, 2007)
United States v. Patterson
713 F.3d 1237 (Tenth Circuit, 2013)
United States v. Ramos-Cardenas
524 F.3d 600 (Fifth Circuit, 2008)
United States v. Vasilakos
508 F.3d 401 (Sixth Circuit, 2007)
United States v. Williams
158 F. App'x 651 (Sixth Circuit, 2005)

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328 F. Supp. 3d 785, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-braden-tnmd-2018.