Source: https://www.federalcriminalappealsblog.com/2012/10/the-seventh-circuit-holds-that-really-bad-fake-documents-are-not-fake-documents-at-all.html
Timestamp: 2017-07-22 04:40:08
Document Index: 186339940

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2', '§ 1028', '§ 1028', '§ 1028', '§ 513', '§ 1028']

Mr. Spears was then charged with five federal crimes: (1) aiding and abetting an attempt to acquire a firearm by fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 922(a)(6) arising from Payne’s attempt to purchase a firearm using the fake handgun permit; (2) aggravated identity theft in violation of § 1028A(a)(1) stemming from Spears’s sale of the fake handgun permit to Payne ; (3) producing false identification documents in violation of § 1028(a)(1); (4) unlawfully possessing five or more false identification documents in violation of § 1028(a)(3); and (5) possessing an implement designed to make a forged security in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 513(b). Though things broke bad for Mr. Spears for most of these charges – he was convicted by a jury for all the charges and sentenced to 34 months (10 months on everything but the aggravated identity theft, and 24 months for that) – in United States v. Spears, the Seventh Circuit reversed on the charge for having five or more false identification documents!
a “false identification document” is defined as “a document of a type intended or commonly accepted for the purposes of identification of individuals” that “is not issued by or under the authority of a governmental entity” but “appears to be issued by or under the authority of . . . a State.” So, basically, the document has to look like it’s within the ballpark of being a legitimate fake ID.
A “false identification document” within the meaning of § 1028(d)(4) is “an identification document that, although not issued by or under the authority of the [government], nonetheless appear[s] to a reasonable person of ordinary intelligence to be issued by or under the authority of the [government].” United States v. Jaensch, 665 F.3d 83, 91 (4th Cir. 2011). The document need not be an exact replica of a government-issued identity card, see id. at 94-95; United States v. Fuller, 531 F.3d 1020, 1025-26 (9th Cir. 2008), but it must at least appear to be government-issued and of a type commonly accepted for identification. So, if the ID is too far from a real ID, it can’t be a fake identification document.
With that denigration of Mr. Spears craft, the Seventh Circuit remanded the case for resentencing. What are the implications of this case for McLovin’?