Opinion ID: 783049
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sufficiency of the Evidence Supporting Lu's Conviction Under the Hostage Taking Act

Text: 20 A defendant challenging his verdict on sufficiency grounds bears a `heavy burden.' United States v. McCarthy, 271 F.3d 387, 394 (2d Cir.2001) (citation omitted). We must affirm a conviction if, viewing all the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, `any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.' United States v. Samaria, 239 F.3d 228, 233 (2d Cir.2001) (quoting Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979)). When reviewing such challenges, [w]e defer to the jury's determination of the weight of the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses, and to the jury's choice of the competing inferences that can be drawn from the evidence. United States v. Morrison, 153 F.3d 34, 49 (2d Cir.1998) (citation omitted).
21 The Hostage Taking Act provides, in pertinent part, that 22 whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, seizes or detains and threatens to kill, to injure, or to continue to detain another person in order to compel a third person or a governmental organization to do or abstain from doing any act as an explicit or implicit condition for the release of the person detained, or attempts or conspires to do so, shall be punished by imprisonment for any term of years or for life and, if the death of any person results, shall be punished by death or life imprisonment. 23 18 U.S.C. § 1203(a) (2000). To obtain a conviction under the Hostage Taking Act, the government must prove that the defendant (1) seized or detained another person, and (2) threatened to kill, injure, or continue to detain that person (3) with the purpose of compelling a third person or governmental organization to act in some way, or to refrain from acting in some way. See United States v. Lin, 101 F.3d 760, 766 (D.C.Cir.1996); United States v. Lopez-Flores, 63 F.3d 1468, 1476 (9th Cir.1995); United States v. Carrion-Caliz, 944 F.2d 220, 223, 225 (5th Cir.1991). 24 On appeal, Lu challenges only the first requirement as it applies to both the conspiracy and substantive counts of hostage taking. He contends that the evidence was insufficient to show that there was a seizure or detention within the meaning of the Hostage Taking Act because the aliens consented to being smuggled into the United States by virtue of their unwritten smuggling agreements. Lu maintains that because the evidence showed that the aliens were held in a manner contemplated by their respective smuggling agreements, no seizure or detention occurred. 25 In making this argument, Lu relies on the Ninth Circuit's recent decision in United States v. Sierra-Velasquez, 310 F.3d 1217 (9th Cir.2002), cert. denied, 123 S.Ct. 1640 (2003). There, defendants involved in an illegal alien smuggling operation similar to the one described above challenged their convictions under the Hostage Taking Act. See id. at 1219-20. They maintained that the evidence was insufficient to sustain their convictions because they had never increased the aliens' smuggling fees beyond the amount initially agreed on. See id. at 1220. Affirming the convictions, the court of appeals rejected the defendants' challenge and held that the aliens had been seized or detained within the meaning of [the Hostage Taking Act] from the time the defendants began to hold [them] in a manner that was not contemplated in the alien smuggling agreement. Id. (emphasis added). At that point, the court explained, the aliens were no longer consensually in the custody of the smuggling defendants. Id. Assuming the converse to be true, Lu contends that because he held the aliens in a manner that was contemplated by the smuggling agreement, no detention occurred.
26 Even if we construed Sierra-Velasquez in the manner advanced by Lu, it provides him little help with respect to the conspiracy count. The evidence adduced at trial shows that at least one alien, Xiao, was detained in a manner not contemplated by his smuggling agreement. 27 As recounted earlier, Xiao testified that his initial smuggling arrangement provided that Lu and the snakeheads would smuggle him into the United States for a fee of $40,000, and that Xiao (or his relatives) would pay that fee after Xiao's release. Xiao testified that during his journey across Canada, he was told (for the first time) that the snakeheads had increased the smuggling fee by $10,000. He further testified that once he arrived in New York, he was informed, contrary to the original terms of his initial smuggling arrangement, that his relatives would be required to pay the snakeheads before Xiao was released. Because the two most material terms of the smuggling arrangement — the timing and amount of the payment — were altered after Xiao consented to being detained, an argument based on Sierra-Velasquez must fail. The evidence presented at trial was sufficient for the jury to conclude that Xiao did not consent to the materially different smuggling arrangement he was held to after his initial consent was given. In any event, as the discussion of the substantive count (below) explains, a smuggler's compliance with the terms of a smuggling contract does not matter if the person detained wants to go free.
28 If Lu's view of Sierra-Velasquez represented the only way the government could prove a seizure or detention under 18 U.S.C. § 1203(a) in the context of an illegal smuggling operation, his argument on appeal would have more force when applied to the substantive hostage-taking count involving Chen. The evidence at trial showed that Chen agreed to pay the snakeheads $43,000 to smuggle her into the United States. On cross-examination, Chen conceded that she agreed to pay her fee before — and as a condition to — her release to relatives in New York. Ultimately, however, Chen was unable to pay the full smuggling fee and, after being held for twenty days, she was released to her relatives for $15,000 — $28,000 less than the amount she and the snakeheads initially agreed on. 29 Sierra-Velasquez, however, does not define the outer limits of what constitutes a detention for the purpose of the Hostage Taking Act in the context of an illegal smuggling operation. While the government may satisfy the detention element by showing that an alien was held in a manner that was not contemplated in the alien smuggling agreement, Sierra-Velasquez, 310 F.3d at 1220 (emphasis added), we reject Lu's position that this represents the only way in which that element can be established. We hold instead, as at least one other court has, that a hostage is `seized' or `detained' within the meaning of the Hostage Taking Act when she is held or confined against her will for an appreciable period of time. Carrion-Caliz, 944 F.2d at 225. 30 Sierra-Velasquez aside, Lu seems to argue that the evidence was insufficient to establish a seizure or detention because the words seize and detain imply a lack of voluntariness, which is absent in Chen's case because she manifested her consent to be held by agreeing to the smuggling arrangement described above. Because that arrangement contemplated, from the outset, that the snakeheads would hold Chen until she paid her fee, Lu contends that any subsequent restraint was voluntary regardless of any fear or anxiety felt by Chen. Underlying Lu's argument in this respect is the assumption that an alien's initial agreement to accompany his smugglers precludes a finding of later detention. The Hostage Taking Act, however, does not require that a seizure or detention be against a hostage's will from its inception. See Carrion-Caliz, 944 F.2d at 226. [T]hat the hostage may initially agree to accompany the hostage taker does not prevent a later `seizure' or `detention' within the meaning of the Hostage Taking Act. Id. Cases decided under the Federal Kidnapping statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1201, which makes it unlawful to seize or confine a person under certain circumstances, provide further support for this interpretation of the detention element of the Hostage Taking Act. See United States v. Eagle Thunder, 893 F.2d 950, 952 (8th Cir.1990) (holding that victim's initial consent to accompany kidnapper did not preclude kidnapping conviction where victim was later detained); United States v. Wesson, 779 F.2d 1443, 1444 (9th Cir.1986) (per curiam) (upholding conviction under Federal Kidnapping statute where victim may have initially agreed to accompany defendant but where victim later expressed her desire to go home). In view of these decisions, we conclude that Chen's initial consent to be smuggled into the United States does not preclude Lu's conviction as long as the evidence was sufficient to prove that, at some point, Chen was held against her will for an appreciable period of time. Carrion-Caliz, 944 F.2d at 225; see also id. at 226 ([T]he dispositive question is not whether [the hostages] initially agreed to go to [the hostage taker's] house, but rather whether [the hostages] later were detained or confined there against their will.). A person who agrees to be confined, held for ransom, and beaten may nevertheless unilaterally revoke that arrangement at any time, and the contractual nature of the detention does not run counter to a finding that a person who wishes to be free is being detained against her will. It is no valid objection to say that such derogation of the smuggling contract removes the financial incentive to smuggle undocumented aliens. 31 To prove that an individual has been held against her will, the government need not show that the defendant actually used physical force or violence to restrain that person. See id. at 225; cf. United States v. Macklin, 671 F.2d 60, 64 (2d Cir.1982) (noting that to be convicted of kidnapping, a defendant must use some means of force — actual or threatened, physical or mental — ... so that the victim is taken, held and transported against his or her will (emphasis added)). In finding the detention element of a hostage-taking violation met, a jury is entitled to rely on evidence showing that the defendant threatened, frightened, deceived or coerced his hostage so as to cause the hostage to remain under the defendant's control. See Carrion-Caliz, 944 F.2d at 227 (holding that evidence was sufficient to show that defendant frighten[ed] and deceiv[ed] [the hostages] sufficiently to cause them to remain at his house); cf. Macklin, 671 F.2d at 64. 32 The Fifth Circuit's decision in Carrion-Caliz provides an illustrative example of how a detention can occur even in the absence of physical restraint. The defendant in that case accepted $2,000 from four Guatemalan aliens in exchange for his help in smuggling them into the United States to see a family member. See Carrion-Caliz, 944 F.2d at 221. After the aliens and the defendant made their way across the border, the defendant and another individual took three of the aliens to the defendant's home where they remained for approximately eight days. See id. During this time, the defendant called the family member that the aliens intended to visit and demanded that the family member pay $3,000 in exchange for the safe delivery of the aliens. See id. at 222. Authorities arrested the defendant while he was attempting to collect the ransom, and he ultimately was convicted of three counts of hostage taking. See id. 33 On appeal, the defendant argued that there was not enough evidence to show that a detention had occurred because he had neither threatened the aliens with injury nor physically restrained them. See id. at 226. The aliens, he maintained, were always free to leave. See id. The court rejected this argument, explaining that the defendant's failure to physically restrain or threaten his hostages does not mean that he did not seize or detain them within the meaning of the Hostage Taking Act. Id. at 226-27. It is enough, the court held, that [the defendant] frightened or deceived [the hostages] sufficiently to cause them to remain in his house when they would have preferred to join their family member elsewhere. Id. at 226. 34 The Fifth Circuit concluded that the aliens' disabilities, coupled with the defendant's threats and deceptions, caused the aliens to remain with the defendant. See id. at 226, 227. Specifically, the court highlighted the aliens' lack of familiarity with the new country in which they found themselves, their inability to speak English, and their lack of resources with which they could have escaped. See id. at 226. In addition, the court pointed to the defendant's warning to the aliens that if they left his house, they would be apprehended by INS officials and deported. See id. Based on this evidence, the court explained, a reasonable jury was entitled to conclude that the aliens were held against their will. See id. at 227. 35 The evidence presented in this case, like that described in Carrion-Caliz, supports the jury's conclusion that Lu seized or detained Chen within the meaning of the Hostage Taking Act. Like the aliens in Carrion-Caliz, Chen was frightened by her smugglers. Describing her transport from the PRC to New York City, Chen testified that she witnessed the snakeheads administer beatings to other aliens smuggled alongside her. One such beating occurred after a snakehead discovered that a hole had been scooped out next to a window in one of the safehouses where Chen and others stayed while making the trek across Canada. Believing that one of the aliens had dug the hole in an attempt to escape, the snakehead proceeded to beat the alien. Chen testified that watching the snakeheads' physical abuse of other aliens scared her. 36 Chen's fear carried over to the time she spent in New York City prior to being, in her words, let go. After arriving in the United States, she and three other female aliens were taken to a New York City apartment. Chen remained in the apartment for twenty days, more than two weeks longer than any of the aliens who accompanied her. When asked at trial why she stayed there for so long, Chen replied that she could not get [her] money ready. She explained that during the twenty-day period, she left the apartment only once. She was very anxious and wanted to get out sooner. Throughout her testimony, Chen repeatedly referenced people guarding her during her time in the apartment. Like the hostages in Carrion-Caliz, Chen testified that she received threats during the twenty days she spent in the apartment. Chen testified that at one point during her stay, a person came by the apartment, asked why she was still there, and ultimately recommended that she be sold to a prostitution house if she could not pay her fee. Chen also found herself in a vulnerable position, much like the hostages in Carrion-Caliz: she had no money, spoke no English, and was unfamiliar with her surroundings in the United States. See id. at 226, 227. Viewed in the light most favorable to the government, Chen's testimony was sufficient to prove that her fear of the snakeheads, coupled with her own disabilities, caused her to remain in the New York City apartment against her will. See id. at 226.