United States v. Jerome Sessions

297 F. App'x 835
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedOctober 20, 2008
Docket07-15968
StatusUnpublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 297 F. App'x 835 (United States v. Jerome Sessions) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh 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. Jerome Sessions, 297 F. App'x 835 (11th Cir. 2008).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

A Northern District of Florida jury convicted Jerome Sessions of distributing crack cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), and the district court sentenced him to prison for 360 months. He now appeals his conviction and sentence. Sessions challenges his conviction on the' grounds that the district court abused its discretion by admitting evidence of his pri- or convictions under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b), and erred in denying his motion for- judgment of acquittal, and abused its discretion in denying his motion for a new trial. 1 He challenges his sen *837 tence on the grounds that the district court abused its discretion in denying his motion to continue his sentencing hearing and thereafter erred in imposing an unreasonable sentence. The sentence is unreasonable, he contends, because the court sentenced him as a career offender under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1 in violation of his rights under the Eighth Amendment. 2 We begin our review by addressing the challenges to Sessions’s conviction.

Prior convictions

At trial, the district court permitted the Government to introduce into evidence over Sessions’s objection certified copies of two of Sessions’s prior convictions, one for possession of marijuana, the other for possession with intent to distribute cocaine. The evidence was admitted under Rule 404(b), which states that

Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show action in conformity therewith. It may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident ...

Fed.R.Evid. 404(b). 3 In determining whether evidence of the defendant’s previous crimes was admissible under Rule 404(b), we ask: (1) whether the evidence was relevant for a reason other than to establish the defendant’s character; (2) whether the probative value of the evidence was substantially outweighed by the danger of undue prejudicial; 4 and (3) whether substantial evidence established that the defendant committed the crimes. United States v. Ellisor, 522 F.3d 1255, 1267 (11th Cir.2008).

Where, as here, a defendant is charged with the distribution of narcotics and, through a plea of not guilty, places his intent to commit the crime in issue, the admission of evidence of his prior arrest for distributing narcotics is relevant to such intent, and the first question of the above inquiry is answered in the affirmative. In this case, the evidence of the prior crimes was relevant to prove Session’s intent to commit the charged offense, its probative value was not substantially outweighed by undue prejudice, and there was no doubt that Sessions had committed the crimes. The court therefore did not abuse its discretion in admitting evidence of the prior convictions.

Motion for judgment of acquittal

Where, as in this case, the defendant fails to move for a judgment of acquittal at the close of the evidence, his conviction will be reversed only if we conclude that reversal is necessary to prevent a manifest miscarriage of justice. United States v. Bender, 290 F.3d 1279, 1283-84 (11th Cir.2002). A manifest miscarriage of justice occurs when the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the government and with all reasonable inferences and credibility choices made in its favor, is so tenuous on a key element that the eonvie *838 tion is shocking. Id. Sessions’s jury had ample evidence on which to find guilt — in particular, the testimony of Louis Gainer, the confidential informant who bought the crack cocaine at issue from Sessions under the supervision of an undercover law enforcement officer, and the testimony of the officer. We could hardly find manifest miscarriage of justice here.

Motion for a new trial

Sessions sought a new trial under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 33(a), citing newly discovered evidence. 5 A district court, in the exercise of its discretion, may grant a new trial based on (1) newly discovered evidence, or (2) on any other ground, which typically is in the interest of justice. United States v. Campa, 459 F.3d 1121, 1151 (11th Cir.2006) (en banc). A motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence, is “highly disfavored.” Id. To receive a new trial based on that ground, the movant must establish that:

(1) the evidence was discovered after trial, (2) the failure of the defendant to discover the evidence was not due to a lack of due diligence, (3) the evidence is not merely cumulative or impeaching, (4) the evidence is material to issues before the court, and (5) the evidence is such that a new trial would probably produce a different result.

U.S. v. Jernigan, 341 F.3d 1273, 1287 (11th Cir.2003). The evidence Sessions claims he would introduce if granted a new trial is evidence that might impeach some of what Gainer stated on the witness stand, but not his testimony about receiving crack cocaine from Sessions. Sessions would also introduce evidence of mistakes two officers made in their reports (of Sessions’s deal with Gainer) and in grand jury testimony. We have reviewed the new evidence Sessions cites and conclude that there is no probability that a new trial would produce different result. In short, we find no abuse of discretion in the court’s refusal to grant Sessions a new trial.

We turn now to Sessions’s challenges to his sentence.

Continuance

Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32 provides that “[t]he probation officer must give the presentence report (“PSI”) to the defendant, the defendant’s attorney, and an attorney for the government at least 35 days before sentencing unless the defendant waives this minimum period.” Sentencing occurred on December 12, 2007. The probation officer transmitted the PSI to the defense on November 14, 2007, 28 days prior to sentencing. Under Rule 32, Sessions had 14 days in which to object to the PSI, but the court gave his attorney two extensions of this time limit, pursuant to Rule 32(b)(2), during which counsel filed objections, on December 4 and 10.

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Bluebook (online)
297 F. App'x 835, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-jerome-sessions-ca11-2008.