Opinion ID: 78333
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Bahamian Wiretap Evidence

Text: Emmanuel filed a pre-trial motion to suppress evidence obtained from the Bahamian wiretap. He argued that the wiretap was illegal and that any evidence from the wiretap should be excluded. After conducting a hearing on this issue, the district court denied the motion. A denial of a motion to suppress presents a mixed question of fact and law. United States v. Delancy, 502 F.3d 1297, 1304 (11th Cir. 2007). We review the findings of fact for clear error and the interpretation and application of law de novo. Id. The general rule is that evidence obtained from searches carried out by foreign officials in their own countries is admissible in United States courts, even if the search would not otherwise comply with United States law or the law of the foreign country. United States v. Rosenthal, 793 F.2d 1214, 1230 (11th Cir.1986); United States v. Morrow, 537 F.2d 120, 140 (5th Cir.1976). [1] But this Circuit has recognized two narrow exceptions to this rule. The first exception is that evidence from foreign searches is inadmissible if the conduct of the foreign officials during the search shocks the judicial conscience. Id. This exception is based on a federal court's inherent supervisory powers over the administration of federal justice. Birdsell v. United States, 346 F.2d 775, 783 n. 10 (5th Cir.1965); United States v. Barona, 56 F.3d 1087, 1096 (9th Cir.1995). The second exception is that evidence from foreign searches is subject to the exclusionary rule if American law enforcement officials substantially participated in the search or if the foreign officials conducting the search were actually acting as agents for their American counterparts. Rosenthal, 793 F.2d. at 1231. This exception is based on a defendant's Fourth Amendment rights. See Morrow, 537 F.2d at 140. This Court followed this line of cases in deciding United States v. Behety, 32 F.3d 503, 510 (11th Cir.1994) which Emmanuel relies upon in arguing that the Bahamian wiretap evidence should be suppressed. Emmanuel argues that the first exception applies to this case because the conduct of the Bahamian officials shocks the judicial conscience. He says that the method for obtaining a wiretap under Bahamian law does not allow for judicial review by a neutral magistrate and is so antithetical to our system's sense of fairness that this Court should find that the evidence is excludable. (Appellant's Br. at 40.) The shocks the judicial conscience standard is not well-defined. But it is clear enough that the conduct of the Bahamian officials does not shock our conscience. Sergeant Woodside's request for a wiretap on Emmanuel's telephones went through four levels of review and the request had to be renewed every 14 days. The shocks the judicial conscience standard is meant to protect against conduct that violates fundamental international norms of decency. United States v. Mitro, 880 F.2d 1480, 1483 (1st Cir.1989). Fundamental international norms of decency do not require judicial review in all jurisdictions of applications to intercept wire communications. Therefore, the Bahamian wiretap evidence is not excludable under the first exception to the general rule of admissibility. Next, Emmanuel argues that the second exception applies to this case because the Bahamian officials did, in fact, act as agents of the United States in a joint venture to interdict this [sic] narcotics. (Appellant's Br. at 32). But this exception is based on a defendant's Fourth Amendment rights. Emmanuel cannot show that he is entitled to the protections of the Fourth Amendment. In United States v. Verdugo-Urquidez, 494 U.S. 259, 110 S.Ct. 1056, 108 L.Ed.2d 222 (1990), the Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment does not apply to the search and seizure by United States agents of property that is owned by a nonresident alien and located in a foreign country. Aliens do enjoy certain constitutional rights, but not the protection of the Fourth Amendment if they have no previous significant voluntary connection with the United States .... Id. at 271, 110 S.Ct. 1056. Here, Emmanuel was a citizen and resident of the Bahamas with no significant voluntary attachment to the United States. And the wiretapped telephones were located in the Bahamas. Emmanuel's participation in a drug trafficking conspiracy directed at importing drugs into the United States does not mean that he was part of the national community protected by the Fourth Amendment. Id. at 265, 110 S.Ct. 1056. Indeed, he was entirely outside of that community. Under these circumstances, the Fourth Amendment has no application. Id. at 275, 110 S.Ct. 1056. Because the Fourth Amendment does not apply to nonresident aliens whose property is searched in a foreign country, there is no need to decide whether the Bahamian officials acted as agents of the United States or whether the wiretap was a joint venture. The Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule simply is not available to Emmanuel with respect to the Bahamian wiretap evidence. In describing the relevant law on this issue, Emmanuel cites to Behety, a case decided by the Eleventh Circuit after Verdugo-Urquidez. In Behety, the defendants were on board a ship in Guatemala when Guatemalan officials conducted a search of the ship and found cocaine. An agent from the Drug Enforcement Administration went aboard the ship and videotaped the search, but did not assist the Guatemalan officials. The defendants argued that evidence from the search was inadmissible because American officials substantially participated in the search. The Court held that the DEA agents' presence and even videotaping of the search [did] not constitute the level of participation this exception contemplates. Behety, 32 F.3d at 511. It is certainly true that the Court in Behety did not discuss Verdugo-Urquidez, and did not explicitly address the antecedent question of whether the defendants had a voluntary attachment to the United States that would entitle them to the protections of the Fourth Amendment. We are bound to apply the precedent of a prior panel even if we are convinced that the prior panel is mistaken about the proper analysis, and even if the prior panel completely overlooked a Supreme Court decision on point. But our prior panel precedent rule does not mean that we are obliged to ignore Verdugo-Urquidez in this case. The critical factual distinction is that in Behety one of the defendants was a resident alien and the other defendant was a United States citizen. Behety, 32 F.3d at 509-10. We are bound only by the holding of the case and not by dicta. Watts v. BellSouth Telecomms., Inc., 316 F.3d 1203, 1207 (11th Cir.2003). The Court in Behety did not, and could not, decide whether the Fourth Amendment applies to a search of a nonresident alien in a foreign country. That question is squarely presented in this case and so we are free to rely on the analysis and holding of Verdugo-Urquidez. The Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule does not apply to the interception of wire communications in the Bahamas of a Bahamian resident. Emmanuel has not shown that his constitutional rights were violated by admission of the Bahamian wiretap evidence. Therefore, the district court properly denied the motion to suppress. Emmanuel also argues that the district court erred in admitting written evidence regarding approval of the Bahamian wiretap. At trial, Sergeant Woodside explained the procedure under Bahamian law for getting approval for a wiretap. (R. Vol. 4, at 589.) The government asked Sergeant Woodside if he could identify Trial Exhibit 2-B and he said that it was an approval from the Commission of Police. ( Id. ) The government then moved to submit the written approval into evidence. ( Id. at 591.) Emmanuel objected on the grounds that the evidence contained inadmissible hearsay. The district court overruled the objection. We review a district court's admission of evidence for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Arbolaez, 450 F.3d 1283, 1289 (11th Cir.2006). Furthermore, evidentiary and other nonconstitutional errors do not constitute grounds for reversal unless there is a reasonable likelihood that they affected the defendant's substantial rights; where an error has no substantial influence on the outcome, and sufficient evidence uninfected by error supports the verdict, reversal is not warranted. United States v. Hawkins, 905 F.2d 1489, 1493 (11th Cir.1990). Before addressing this issue, it is worth pointing out what Emmanuel does not say. Emmanuel does not say that the district court erred in allowing the written approval into evidence during the pre-trial suppression hearing. When the government presented the written approval at the suppression hearing, Emmanuel did not raise a hearsay objection. (R. Vol. 3, at 331.) And in his brief to this Court, Emmanuel did not mention the suppression hearing, but rather specifically referred to the Government's Trial Exhibit 2-B. (Appellant's Br. at 38.) The focus of our review, therefore, is on the effect the evidence had on the trial, not the suppression hearing. With this in mind, we do not decide whether the written approval of the Bahamian wiretap contained inadmissible hearsay because it is unlikely that the evidence affected the Appellant's substantial rights. The written approval merely supplemented the narrative structure of the government's case, providing a transition from Sergeant Woodside's initial investigation of the Austin Knowles organization to discussing the wiretap on Emmanuel's phones. The evidence does not affect any element of the crimes at issue in this case nor any defense asserted by Emmanuel. The jury's verdict was not influenced by evidence that the Commissioner of Police approved the Bahamian wiretap, but rather by evidence of Emmanuel's own incriminating conversations and corroborating evidence involving seizures of drugs and drug money. Emmanuel also argues that admitting the written approval of the Bahamian wiretap into evidence violated his Sixth Amendment right to confront the witnesses against him. (Appellant's Br. at 38.) He says that the evidence is testimonial hearsay as defined by Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 52, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004). At trial, Emmanuel made a hearsay objection to the evidence, but did not mention the Confrontation Clause. A hearsay objection to testimony at trial, standing alone, does not preserve a constitutional challenge under the Confrontation Clause for appeal. Arbolaez, 450 F.3d at 1291 n. 8. Because Emmanuel did not make a timely Confrontation Clause objection at trial, we review for plain error only. Id. at 1291. To demonstrate plain error, there must be an (1) error (2) that is plain and (3) that affects substantial rights. Id. But we do not decide whether allowing the written approval into evidence was error because, as discussed in connection with the hearsay objection, it is unlikely that the evidence affected Emmanuel's substantial rights. He has not shown that any alleged error by the district court in allowing the written approval into evidence requires reversal.