United States v. Jannie L. Shumpert Hood

210 F.3d 660, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 8169, 2000 WL 489705
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedApril 27, 2000
Docket99-3932
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 210 F.3d 660 (United States v. Jannie L. Shumpert Hood) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Jannie L. Shumpert Hood, 210 F.3d 660, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 8169, 2000 WL 489705 (6th Cir. 2000).

Opinions

NATHANIEL R. JONES, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which MOORE, J., joined. BATCHELDER, J. (pp. 664-66), delivered a separate concurring opinion.

OPINION

NATHANIEL R. JONES, Circuit Judge.

DefendanL-Appellant Jannie Shumpert Hood appeals her conviction and sentence for assault of a federal postal officer in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 111(a)(1) & (b). Hood contends that the district court erred by not specifically instructing the jury on Sixth Amendment unanimity, and by sentencing her under U.S.S.G. § 2A2.2 for “aggravated assault.” We disagree with her first contention, but agree that the district court erred in sentencing her under § 2A2.2. Accordingly, we AFFIRM in part, VACATE in part, and REMAND for re-sentencing.

I.

The question of determining the appropriate classification of assault in this case is particularly fact-driven, as will be evident from the following recital of events. On January 12, 1999, Mrs. Hood, a 47 year-old African-American, was at her home in Cleveland’s Collinwood section. Sometime that morning, Jim Wacker, a nineteen year old recent high school graduate, came by to deliver the mail. Appellant Hood met Wacker as he arrived to deliver the mail. Wacker testified that he “backed up” when he saw the appellant open the door, as it made him “nervous” that a black woman he did not know was coming outside. J.A. at 104-05. Appellant, upset that her mail was not being delivered as she desired, snatched the mail out of Wacker’s hands. After an angry exchange of words, Wacker promptly reported the incident to his supervisor, whereupon the supervisor dispatched Inspectors Steven Bolz and J.C. Swinson to probe the incident.

Bolz and Swinson arrived at Hood’s home while she was in the middle of preparing breakfast for her nephew. The record shows that after Bolz and Swinson arrived on the porch and rang the doorbell, Mrs. Hood looked out the window to see who was at the door. Upon observing Bolz and Swinson, Mrs. Hood went to the door while still holding the knife she used to prepare breakfast. The inspectors testified that when Mrs. Hood came to the window, they displayed their credentials prior to her coming outside onto the porch. The porch was very small, approximately the same width as Appellant’s storm door. It was supported by a pillar that, given the porch’s small size, prevented the door from [662]*662fully opening. Thus, anyone standing to the left side of the porch, as was Bolz, would be blocked behind the door and pillar.

Mrs. Hood testified that she first noticed Swinson’s credentials when she opened the door. While Appellant stated that she merely opened the doors, Swinson testified that Mrs. Hood came “barreling out” of the house. Bolz stated that she came out of the house “very loud and angry.” J.A. at 132-33. In any event, when Bolz noticed that she had a steak knife in her hand, he backed off the porch, as did Swin-son, and drew his firearm on Appellant. Seeing the weapon, she began screaming to her nephew, “Danny, he’s got a gun. He’s going to shoot me.” The inspectors quickly backed away from the house, and returned in their unmarked van to the Collinwood post office. Mrs. Hood called the station to register a complaint, and, later in the day, personally went to the station to complain about the incident.

On February 10, 1999, a federal grand jury returned a three count indictment against Appellant Hood, alleging three separate individual assaults against Bolz, Swinson, and Wacker in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 111(a) & (b). The Bolz and Swin-son counts alleged that Hood committed the assault through the use of a deadly weapon in violation of § 111(b). On March 30, 1999, Appellant moved to compel election between multiplicitous counts, asserting that the separate Bolz and Swinson charges actually constituted a single act of assault. J.A. at 23. The Government did not object to this motion, and a superseding two count indictment was subsequently issued on April 14. . Count one of the superseding indictment collapsed the charges against Bolz and Swinson into one collective charge, while count two, the Wacker charge, remained unchanged from the initial indictment.

During the two-day trial, Mrs. Hood requested a specific unanimity instruction, requiring the jury to unanimously find that she assaulted both Swinson and Bolz to convict. The Court denied this request, and instructed the jury that it could convict if it found that Mrs. Hood “forcibly assaulted or resisted or opposed or impeded or intimidated or interfered with J.C. Swinson or Steven D. Bolz.” J.A. at 227 (emphasis added). The jury subsequently convicted Hood of count one, and acquitted her on count two. The probation officer’s pre-sentencing report provided that Hood never “lung[ed] forward” with the knife, but that she “did advance toward [Bolz and Swinson] on the porch.” The district court applied the guideline provision for “aggravated assault,” increased the base offense level by three for brandishing or threatening the use of a deadly weapon, and sentenced Appellant to 27 months imprisonment. Hood filed this timely appeal, contending that the district court erred both in failing to cure a purportedly duplicitous indictment and in sentencing her under the “aggravated assault” guideline.

II.

“The trial court is Vested with broad discretion in formulating its charge and will not be reversed unless the charge fails accurately to reflect the law.’ ” United States v. Busacca, 863 F.2d 433, 435 (6th Cir.1988) (per curiam) (citation omitted). Accordingly, we review the trial court’s jury instruction for an abuse of discretion. Id. Raising a mixed question of law and fact, we review de novo the district court’s application of U.S.S.G. § 2A2.2.

A.

Duplicitous indictments implicate the protections of the Sixth Amendment guarantee of jury unanimity. An indictment is duplicitous if “it joins in a single count two or more distinct and separate offenses.” United States v. Robinson, 651 F.2d 1188, 1194 (6th Cir.1981). “The vice of duplicity is that a jury may find a defendant guilty on the count without having reached a unanimous verdict on the [663]*663commission of any particular offense." Id. (citation omitted); see also United States v. Washington, 127 F.3d 510, 513 (6th Cir.1997). By collapsing separate offenses into a single count, duplicitous indictments thereby prevent the jury from convicting on one offense and acquitting on another. See id. Duplicitous charges, however, are not necessarily fatal to an indictment. See Robinson, 651 F.2d at 1194. A defendant may move, as did Hood, to require the government to "elect either the count or the charge within the count upon which it will rely," or the court may "particulariz[e] the distinct offense charged in each count" in its jury instruction. Id. Moreover, a specific unanimity instruction is generally not required unless: "1) a count is extremely complex; 2) there is variance between the indictment and the proof at trial; or 3) there is a tangible risk of jury confusion." United States v.

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Bluebook (online)
210 F.3d 660, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 8169, 2000 WL 489705, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-jannie-l-shumpert-hood-ca6-2000.