Opinion ID: 199351
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Elements of the Federal Crime of Hostage Taking

Text: Defendant argues that the indictment fails to allege one of the essential elements of the crime of hostage taking -- the so-called international element, see 18 U.S.C. § 1203(b)(2), infra -- rendering it fundamentally defective and requiring us to reverse his conviction notwithstanding his guilty plea. Section 1203 of 18 U.S.C., the federal statute criminalizing hostage taking, states, in relevant part, (a) Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, 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. -4- .... (b)(2) It is not an offense under this section if the conduct required for the offense occurred inside the United States, each alleged offender and each person seized or detained are nationals of the United States, and each alleged offender is found in the United States, unless the governmental organization sought to be compelled is the Government of the United States. 18 U.S.C. § 1203. Defendant points out that the indictment fails to allege that he or any other person involved in the kidnaping of Carlos de la Rosa Berbera were not nationals of the United States (the so-called “international element,” see 18 U.S.C. § 1203(b)(2)). Defendant argues that the fact that an alleged offender or victim of the hostage taking is a non-U.S. national is an essential jurisdictional element of the offense, and, as such, had to be alleged in the indictment in order to comport with due process. See United States v. Mojica-Baez, 229 F.3d 292, 309 (1st Cir. 2000) (citing Hamling v. United States, 418 U.S. 87, 117-18 (1974) and United States v. Hess, 124 U.S. 483, 487 (1888)). See also United States v. Penagaricano-Soler, 911 F.2d 833, 839-40 (1st Cir. 1990) (citing cases). The government does not dispute that the indictment fails to allege facts showing compliance with the international aspect of the hostage taking statute, but contends that this aspect need not be pleaded as it is an affirmative defense only. -5- According to the government, the defendant has the burden to allege and prove that his case falls within the statutory exception as defined by 18 U.S.C. § 1203(b)(2) – that all offenders and victims of the crime were United States nationals. On different facts, the absence of an allegation in the indictment that at least one alleged offender or victim was a non-U.S. national might be cause for concern. Compare United States v. Vuitch, 402 U.S. 62, 70 (1971) (stating as a “general guide to the interpretation of criminal statutes that when an exception is incorporated in the enacting clause of a criminal statute, the burden is on the prosecution to plead and prove that the defendant is not within the exception”) with United States v. Santos-Riviera, 183 F.3d 367, 370 (5th Cir. 1999) (holding that the exception incorporated into the enacting clause of the Hostage Taking statute is not an essential element of the offense for which the government bears the burden of proof). Given Vuitch, it is arguable that the Fifth Circuit’s reasoning in Santos-Riviera was incorrect. But we need not and do not decide that issue at this time. The uncontraverted facts of record leave no doubt that even if the so-called international element should have been pleaded in the indictment, any error resulting from that -6- omission was harmless. See Mojica-Baez, 229 F.3d at 311 (holding that failure of indictment to allege an element of the offense is subject to harmless error review where the indictment otherwise provided the defendants with fair notice of the charges against them). Corporán freely admitted to the court that he was a national of the Dominican Republic both at his change of plea hearing and again at sentencing. That he is not a United States national is undisputed. The international element of the statute -- even assuming arguendo that it should have been pleaded in the indictment -- has been plainly satisfied, despite the government’s failure to plead it expressly. Nothing in the record suggests that Corporán could in any way have been prejudiced by the indictment’s failure to have alleged his Dominican citizenship. Accordingly, this claim of error furnishes no basis for reversal. See id.