Opinion ID: 751779
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Substitute Instruction.

Text: 60 We have no trouble in concluding that the district court erroneously instructed the jury with respect to Count 24 to the extent that the district court substituted the elements of the crime of Perjury generally, 18 U.S.C. § 1621, for the elements of the crime of False declarations before a grand jury or court, 18 U.S.C. § 1623. As previously stated, to convict Conk of perjury under § 1623 as alleged in Count 24, the government had to prove that Conk (1) knowingly made a(2) false (3) material declaration (4) under oath (5) in a proceeding before or ancillary to any court or grand jury of the United States. See 18 U.S.C. § 1623(a). The district court's substitute instruction covered all of these elements except for the last one. On that element, the district court instructed that, in order to convict Conk of perjury, he must have made the allegedly false statement in a proceeding for which a law of the United States authorizes the administration of an oath rather than in a proceeding ancillary to any court or grand jury of the United States. Thus, the district court failed to instruct on an essential element of § 1623(a). This was error, and the error was plain. Thus, the first and second prongs of Olano are satisfied. 61 Again, unless we conclude that the jury necessarily made the required finding despite the failure to instruct, see, e.g., Forbes, 64 F.3d at 935, then we must conclude that the failure to instruct affected Conk's substantial rights, see David, 83 F.3d at 647. The record before us gives no indication that, despite the district court's failure to instruct, the jury necessarily found that Conk made the allegedly false statement at issue in a proceeding before or ancillary to any court or grand jury of the United States. No other instruction encompassed the missing instruction. Moreover, any chance at inquiring whether the jury necessarily found that Conk made the allegedly false statement in a proceeding ancillary to any court or grand jury of the United States by finding that he made the allegedly false statement in a proceeding for which a law of the United States authorizes the administration of an oath is foreclosed by the district court's conclusive instruction on the latter issue. Accordingly, Olano's third prong is satisfied. See David, 83 F.3d at 647. 62 We now must consider whether the forfeited error seriously affect[s] the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings. See Olano, 507 U.S. at 732, 113 S.Ct. at 1776 (alteration in original) (internal quotation marks omitted). We conclude that it does not, because overwhelming evidence establishes that Conk made the declaration at issue during a proceeding ancillary to a court of the United States, specifically a civil deposition; such evidence stands uncontradicted in the record; Conk did not dispute this element below and does not do so on appeal; and finally, Conk fails to set forth a plausible argument that he did not make the declaration at issue during a proceeding ancillary to a court of the United States. Under these circumstances, the fourth prong of Olano is not satisfied, see Johnson, 520 U.S. at ----, 117 S.Ct. at 1550, and thus, we will not reverse Conk's perjury conviction on this basis. 63