Opinion ID: 6330205
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Deliberate-Indifference Instruction

Text: Hofstetter also challenges the district court’s deliberate-indifference instruction with respect to her distribution charge. Hofstetter requested different instructions than the one the district court gave, so this Court reviews the district court’s instruction for abuse of discretion. See Pritchard, 964 F.3d at 522. “A trial court has broad discretion in crafting jury instructions and does not abuse its discretion unless the jury charge fails accurately to reflect the law.” United States v. Geisen, 612 F.3d 471, 485 (6th Cir. 2010) (internal quotation and citation omitted). To convict Hofstetter of unlawful distribution under 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), the government was required to prove that Hofstetter “knowingly or intentionally” distributed a Nos. 20-6245/6426/6427/6428 United States v. Hofstetter, et al. Page 13 controlled substance “outside the scope of professional medical practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose[.]” (Trial Tr., R. 897, PageID 61805.) With respect to the knowledge element, the district court instructed the jury that Hofstetter could be found liable under the doctrine of deliberate indifference: Although knowledge of the defendant cannot be established merely by demonstrating that she was careless, knowledge may be inferred if the defendant deliberately blinded herself to the existence of a fact. No one can avoid responsibility for a crime by deliberately ignoring the obvious. If you are convinced that a defendant deliberately ignored a high probability that the controlled substances, as alleged in these counts, were distributed outside the usual course of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose, then you may find that the defendant knew that this was the case. But you must be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was aware of a high probability that the controlled substances were distributed outside the usual course of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose, and that the defendant deliberately closed her eyes to what was obvious. Carelessness or negligence or foolishness on her part are not the same as knowledge, and are not enough to find her guilty of any offense charged under this law. (Id. at PageID 61806–07.) Hofstetter argues that this instruction does not incorporate the deliberate indifference standard announced in Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A., 563 U.S. 754, 769 (2011). Specifically, Hofstetter claims the jury should have been instructed that a defendant is not deliberately indifferent unless she “subjectively believe[s] that there is a high probability that a fact exists” and “take[s] deliberate actions to avoid learning of that fact.” (Hofstetter Br. 40 (quoting Global-Tech, 563 U.S. at 769).) Hofstetter’s proposed instruction and the one given are functional equivalents: both require the defendant to have been aware of a “high probability” that a fact exists and to have “deliberately” avoided full knowledge. In addition, the district court’s instruction tracks (and adds to) the language in this Court’s model jury instructions on deliberate indifference, which have been approved as consistent with Global-Tech. See Sixth Circuit Pattern Instruction 2.09; United States v. Reichert, 747 F.3d 445, 451 (6th Cir. 2014). The Supreme Court also acknowledged that similar instructions complied with Global-Tech. 563 U.S. at 769 & n.9 (citing, e.g., United States v. Holloway, 731 F.2d 378, 380–81 (6th Cir. 1984) (per curiam)). Nos. 20-6245/6426/6427/6428 United States v. Hofstetter, et al. Page 14 Accordingly, the district court did not abuse its discretion with respect to the deliberateindifference instruction. Because there is no plain error in either the maintaining-a-drug-involved-premises instruction or the Pinkerton instruction, and because the district court did not abuse its discretion by instructing the jury as to deliberate indifference, we affirm each of the three contested jury instructions.