Source: http://openjurist.org/186/f3d/921
Timestamp: 2015-08-31 13:24:00
Document Index: 671011893

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1512', '§ 3282', '§ 3281', '§ 1512', '§ 1512', '§ 1512', '§ 1111', '§ 1512', '§ 1512']

186 F3d 921 United States of America v. Tony E Emery | OpenJurist
186 F. 3d 921 - United States of America v. Tony E Emery Home
186 F3d 921 United States of America v. Tony E Emery 186 F.3d 921 (8th Cir. 1999)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, APPELLEE,v.TONY E. EMERY, APPELLANT.
Submitted: May 11, 1999Decided July 30, 1999
D. Michael Green, Kansas City, MO, argued (Stephen L. Hill, Jr., U.S. Attorney and Matt J. Whitworth, on the brief), for Appellee.
Jacqueline A. Cook, Kansas City, MO, argued, for Appellant.
A jury convicted Tony Emery of killing a federal informant, see 18 U.S.C. § 1512(a)(1)(C). The victim was Christine Elkins, who had been cooperating with federal officials in an investigation of Mr. Emery's drug trafficking activities. The trial court2 sentenced Mr. Emery to life imprisonment without parole and fined him $25,000. Mr. Emery appeals his conviction, and we affirm.
Mr. Emery contends that the indictment under which he was tried was barred by the statute of limitations. Although it is true that a five-year statute of limitations applies to non-capital federal crimes unless some other statute specifically provides otherwise, see 18 U.S.C. § 3282, no such limitation applies to capital crimes, see 18 U.S.C. § 3281. Mr. Emery argues, however, that when 18 U.S.C. § 1512 was enacted in 1986, capital punishment had been prohibited by Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972) (per curiam). Congress could not therefore have intended, the argument goes, for killing a federal witness to be a capital crime exempt from the five-year statute of limitations.
There are a number of infirmities with this argument, but we believe that it suffices to observe that a plain reading of the statutory language dictates a different result. The penalty section of § 1512, as it existed in 1990 (the time of the crime), see § 1512(a)(2)(A), explicitly incorporated the sentencing provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 1111, which has always permitted the death penalty to be a punishment for first-degree murder. The indictment and the verdict director form in this case included all of the elements of first-degree murder, and the jury found that the prosecution proved these elements beyond a reasonable doubt. The crime Mr. Emery was indicted and convicted for was therefore a capital crime, to which no statute of limitations applies.
Mr. Emery maintains that § 1512 is unconstitutional because it seeks to regulate an activity that is beyond the scope of commerce, and includes no jurisdictional element that would ensure a case-by-case analysis of the relationship between the activity regulated and the flow of interstate commerce as required by United States v. Lopez, 514 U.S. 549, 561 (1995). Alternatively, he asserts that, applying such a case-by-case analysis, no federal jurisdiction existed in this case because in the circumstances interstate commerce was not sufficiently affected. Finally, Mr. Emery contends that the indictment was flawed because it failed to state that his activities affected interstate commerce.
Mr. Emery's arguments are without merit, because the statute in question does not derive its authority from Congress's authority over interstate commerce, but from Congress's power to maintain the integrity of federal proceedings and investigations. See United States v. Veal, 153 F.3d 1233, 1247-51 (11th Cir. 1998), cert. denied, 119 S. Ct. 2024 (1999). Thus, neither the constitutionality of the statute, the jurisdiction of the federal court, nor the sufficiency of the indictment depends on the effects of the proscribed acts on interstate commerce.
An essential element of the crime charged is that a defendant intend to prevent communication with federal officials, see 18 U.S.C. § 1512(a)(1)(C). Mr. Emery contends that this element requires proof that he knew that a federal investigation was under way, or knew that his crime was a federal one that raised the possibility of a federal investigation. He asserts that the indictment failed to allege this necessary state of mind, that there was insufficient evidence to prove this element, and that the relevant jury instruction failed to inform the jury that such knowledge was required for conviction.
In support of his position, Mr. Emery relies on United States v. Stansfield, 101 F.3d 909, 918 (3d Cir. 1996) (Stansfield I), which contained the statement that the prosecution must p