Opinion ID: 2657921
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: Harvey first entered the United States in 1988 through Miami, Florida. He subsequently was convicted of a crime constituting an aggravated felony under the immigration laws and, in December 1991, an immigration judge ordered him deported. 2 Some twenty years later, in May 2011, immigration authorities apprehended Harvey in the Southern District of New York and charged him with one count of illegal re-entry after deportation for an aggravated felony. The matter proceeded to trial in October 2011. To establish that Harvey left the country, the government introduced a Form I-205 warrant of deportation dated March 7, 1992 and executed by Supervisory Detention Enforcement Officer David R. Thompson of the (former) Immigration and Naturalization Service. The warrant indicated that Officer Thompson witnessed Harvey leave the country that morning on American Airlines flight 1193, which was bound for Kingston, Jamaica. Harvey stipulated at trial that the deportation warrant bore his signature and fingerprints. Officer Thompson died before Harvey’s October 2011 trial and therefore was unavailable to testify. Instead, the government offered the testimony of Special Agent William Sansone of the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, who explained the deportation procedures in effect at the time of Harvey’s 1992 deportation. He testified that, when a person was deported from the United States via airplane, the immigration officer executing the deportation escorted the deportee to his seat on the aircraft, ensured that the interior of the aircraft was secure, returned to the jetway, and then remained at the aircraft door until the aircraft pulled away. The immigration official then watched the aircraft until it was out of sight, at which point the official signed the deportation warrant. Special Agent Sansone could not recall whether he had participated 3 in Harvey’s deportation, and the government did not introduce any other direct evidence of Harvey’s departure from the country.1 Following the close of the government’s evidence, Harvey moved for a judgment of acquittal, arguing that the government’s evidence failed to establish that he ever left the country. The district court denied the motion, ruling, inter alia, that there was “no particular reason to doubt the regularity of the procedures” by which Harvey was deported. The jury returned a guilty verdict on November 1, 2011, and, in March 2012, the district court sentenced Harvey principally to 60 months’ incarceration. Harvey timely appealed the resulting March 30, 2012 judgment of conviction.