Opinion ID: 2982385
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Improper Destruction of Evidence

Text: The defendant also should not prevail on his claim that the district court should have either dismissed the indictment or given a favorable jury instruction because his coat was not preserved as evidence. As this court explained in United States v. Jobson, the following three-part test is applied to determine if the destruction of evidence offended due process: (1) that the government acted in bad faith in failing to preserve the evidence; (2) that the exculpatory value of the evidence was apparent before its destruction; and (3) that the nature of the evidence was such that the defendant would be unable to obtain comparable evidence by other reasonably available means. 102 F.3d 214, 218 (6th Cir. 1996). There is no evidence that the government (Wayne County Jail) acted in bad faith, or destroyed the defendant’s coat for any reason independent of the jail’s normal practice. Whether the coat could have been helpful to the defendant’s case may be difficult to determine today, but it is not obvious that Bell could not have used another coat from the same company to make the point. Accordingly, we affirm defendant’s conviction and remand to the district court for resentencing in accordance with this opinion. -4-