Opinion ID: 3032503
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: [10] Romo next challenges his conviction on the ground that the government presented insufficient evidence. He specifically notes that the government failed to produce the letter he wrote. The jury’s finding must stand if, “after viewing the UNITED STATES v. ROMO 7809 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.” Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 (1979) (emphasis in original). The essential elements of threatening the President are the knowing and willful deposit for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier a writing containing a threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm on the President, or otherwise knowingly or willfully making such a threat. 18 U.S.C. § 871(a).5 To obtain a conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 871(a), the government must prove that a statement is a true threat, which has been defined as a statement, written or oral, [made] in a context or under such circumstances wherein a reasonable person would foresee that the statement would be interpreted by those to whom the maker communicates the statement as a serious expression of an intention to inflict bodily harm upon or to take the life of the President. Hanna, 293 F.3d at 1084 (quoting Roy, 416 F.2d at 877).6 5 In its entirety, 18 U.S.C. § 871(a) provides: Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President of the United States, or the Vice Presidentelect, or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the President, President-elect, Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President, or Vice President-elect, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. 6 The recent decision in United States v. Cassel, 408 F.3d 622 (9th Cir. 2005), does not change our view. Id. at 633 (holding that “speech may be deemed unprotected by the First Amendment as a ‘true threat’ only upon 7810 UNITED STATES v. ROMO [11] It is unequivocal that Romo intentionally wrote a threat against the President and placed it in the mail. The statute does not require receipt of the threat by the intended recipient. Romo does not dispute that he wrote and mailed a letter stating that someone should put a bullet in the President’s head and that he would like to do it. LaPlante and Agent Thomas both testified that Romo confessed to writing and sending the letter.7 Romo clarified his threat by writing on his transport sheet, which contained his picture, name, and thumb print, “So you know whos [sic] coming to kill you Mr. George W. Bush you fucking traitor.” And if that were not enough evidence, Romo told Agent Thomas that he would hit or shoot the President if he had the opportunity. [12] Although the government did not produce the letter itself, it offered a reasonable and credible explanation. As a security response to the anthrax scare that followed the September 11 terrorist attacks, see, e.g., Stephen Engelberg & Judith Miller, Sign of Escalating Threat, N.Y. Times, Oct. 17, 2001, at A1 (providing a description of the anthrax crisis, proof that the speaker subjectively intended the speech as a threat”). Cassel leaves untouched the reasonable person analysis for presidential threats because it did not address whether statutes like 18 U.S.C. § 871(a) require intent. Id. at 633 n.8 (“We are not faced with the question of what effect our holding has on other specific statutes that we have previously held do not require the government to prove subjective intent.”). Because Romo has not raised First Amendment issues and Cassel does not alter the analysis of presidential threats, we employ the decades-old approach to analyzing threats under 18 U.S.C. § 871(a). See, e.g., Roy, 416 F.2d at 877. 7 Romo’s statements to Agent Thomas were entirely voluntary. Agent Thomas delivered Miranda warnings, and Romo has not pointed to any evidence that the state compelled him to speak or would have penalized him had he remained silent. See United States v. Antelope, 395 F.3d 1128, 1137 (9th Cir. 2005) (explaining that under McKune v. Lile, 536 U.S. 24, 53 (2002) (O’Connor, J., concurring), “the key factor in assessing a prisoner’s self-incrimination claim was whether the disputed penalty . . . amounted to an ‘atypical and significant hardship’ within the prison context”). UNITED STATES v. ROMO 7811 which involved anthrax sent to Congress in letters), no mail sent to the President between October 2001 and April 2002 was delivered to the White House. Instead, the mail was stored in a warehouse. Then between April 2002 and early 2003, the White House mail division began processing only a small percentage of the mail received, based on a priority list, with the remainder of the mail going to the warehouse. As Romo mailed his letter sometime in early October 2002, it likely would have been sent to the warehouse and no member of the White House mail correspondence division would have directly received Romo’s letter. By the time of Romo’s trial, White House personnel had begun sorting through the stored mail, but they had not completed the gargantuan task. The sheer volume of the accumulated mail prevented officials from picking out a particular letter, like Romo’s, for analysis or for introduction at trial. Just as a needle might remain in a haystack despite efforts to find it, Romo’s letter apparently remained buried among the mail inside the warehouse. Romo does not seriously dispute that the language in the letter, which stated that “someone should put a bullet in your head, and I’m willing to do it,” constituted a true threat. Although he emphasizes that he would not have been able to act on the threat because of his incarceration, his argument has no legal significance. Because the threat itself is the crime, a defendant can be guilty of a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 871(a) even when he is incapable of carrying out the threat. United States v. Mitchell, 812 F.2d 1250, 1255-56 (9th Cir. 1987), overruled on other grounds by Planned Parenthood of the Columbia/Willamette, Inc. v. Am. Coalition of Life Activists, 290 F.3d 1058, 1066-70 (9th Cir. 2002) (en banc). [13] Viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, we conclude that the evidence was sufficient to show that Romo wrote and sent a threatening letter to the President in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 871(a). AFFIRMED. 7812 UNITED STATES v. ROMO