Opinion ID: 757097
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Propriety of Joinder with Respect to Wadena

Text: 66 Like Clark, Wadena argues joinder in this case was improper. In particular, Wadena claims that because the government did not allege that he was in any way involved in the election conspiracy, he should not have been tried with the other defendants who were alleged to have participated in all three conspiracies. 26 For the reasons discussed below, we conclude that even if misjoinder occurred with respect to Wadena, any such error did not have a substantial and injurious effect or influence on the jury's verdict, and reversal is not required. 67 Wadena alleges the government turned his trial into an election fraud circus by calling 136 election fraud witnesses to the stand, introducing nearly 600 election fraud exhibits, and stating in its closing argument that all the defendants were guilty of controlling the ballot box in order to control the cashbox. See Wadena Br. at 22-23. Wadena asserts he suffered overwhelming prejudice in this politically charged trial. Id. at 23. 68 We disagree. As noted above, the government presented evidence relating to the three conspiracies in three distinct phases. When the government referred to the election conspiracy in its opening statement, case-in-chief, and closing argument, it specifically referred to the involvement of Clark and Rawley in that conspiracy. While Wadena correctly asserts that the government presented numerous witnesses who testified in the election conspiracy phase of the trial, as we stated above with respect to Clark, the majority of those witnesses simply testified they did not actually vote in the 1994 election even though ballots were cast in their names. 27 Further, a large portion of the exhibits presented during the election conspiracy phase of the trial consisted solely of various absentee ballots. Overall, we do not believe the evidence presented in relation to the election conspiracy caused the jury to convict Wadena of the charges arising from the other two conspiracies. 69 Wadena also alleges he suffered prejudice because the district court failed to instruct the jury not to consider the extensive election fraud evidence against him. See Wadena Br. at 24, n. 15. This argument is specious. Perhaps the district court did not specifically tell the jury not to consider any election fraud evidence against Wadena. However, in essence the district court told the jury to do the same thing when, as noted above, it admonished the jury to treat each defendant separately and return a separate verdict for each defendant and for each crime charged. Finally, the government presented strong evidence of Wadena's guilt in the offenses relating to the construction conspiracy and the Commissions conspiracy. From our de novo review of the record, we conclude that any misjoinder with respect to Wadena was harmless, and reversal is not required. See Lane, 474 U.S. at 449, 106 S.Ct. 725.