Opinion ID: 14713
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Impact of the Ex Post Facto Clause on the

Text: Money Laundering Conspiracy Conviction Garcia Abrego contends that all of the acts that formed the basis of his conviction for conspiracy to launder money occurred before October 28, 1992, the effective date of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h), which raised the maximum penalty for such a conspiracy to the same level as the underlying substantive offense. See 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h). He also argues that, even if only one of the acts comprising the offense occurred before § 1956(h)’s effective date, the Ex Post Facto Clause precludes applying the statute’s harsher penalty provisions to the offense. As an initial matter, we reject Garcia Abrego’s argument that his conviction under § 1956(h) violated the Ex Post Facto Clause if any of the conduct in furtherance of the conspiracy occurred before the statute’s effective date. Conspiracy is a continuing offense. See Bermea, 30 F.3d at 1577. “‘[W]here a crime is still being carried on and continued after the date when the act becomes effective,’ a statute imposing a greater penalty for conspiracy does not violate the constitutional prohibition of ex post facto laws.” United States v. Todd, 735 F.2d 146, 150 (5th Cir. 1984) (quoting Huff v. United States, 192 F.2d 911, 914-15 (5th Cir. 1951)); see also United States v. Harris, 79 F.3d 223, 229 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 117 S. Ct. 142 (1996); 53 Bermea, 30 F.3d at 1577; United States v. Garfinkel, 29 F.3d 1253, 1259 (8th Cir. 1994); United States v. Jackson, 845 F.2d 1262, 1265 (5th Cir. 1988). In circumstances in which many acts in a continuing offense occurred before the effective date of the statute criminalizing the continuing offense, the trial court must inform the jury of the effective date of the statute and instruct the jury that, in order to convict the defendant of the offense, it must find that the offense continued after the effective date of the statute. See Todd, 735 F.2d at 150. The district court gave such an instruction in this case, and the government presented ample evidence that the conspiracy to launder money occurred after the effective date of § 1956(h). Among the post-October 1992 evidence supporting Garcia Abrego’s conviction of conspiracy to launder money is the testimony of Carlos Resendez that he participated in a large cocaine transaction in 1993 and turned the proceeds over to Garcia Abrego in Monterey, Mexico. Additionally, Resendez testified that he picked up money in the United States for Garcia Abrego in 1993. Resendez also testified that he engaged in a cocaine transaction in 1994 and that he delivered the money pursuant to Garcia Abrego’s instructions. Furthermore, Tony Ortiz testified that, in November 1992, he delivered approximately $40,000 to Medrano for use in bribing a Mexican official. Based upon this evidence, the jury could reasonably conclude that the money laundering conspiracy continued after the 54 effective date of § 1956(h). Therefore, Garcia Abrego’s conviction for violation of § 1956(h) did not violate the Ex Post Facto Clause. I. Admissibility of Garcia Abrego’s Custodial Statement Garcia Abrego challenges the admissibility of the statement that he made to U.S. law enforcement officials after he was transferred to U.S. custody by Mexican authorities. Before addressing Garcia Abrego’s claims regarding his custodial statement, a synopsis of the facts surrounding that statement is necessary.
Mexican law enforcement officials arrested Garcia Abrego in Monterey, Mexico on the night of January 14, 1996. Mexican officials flew Garcia Abrego to Mexico City that night, and DEA Agent Lawrence Hensley accompanied them on the flight. During the flight, Garcia Abrego drank some tequila. Without giving Garcia Abrego Miranda13 warnings, agent Hensley asked Garcia Abrego questions about his citizenship and the seizure of cocaine and money. The government contends that Garcia Abrego made no specific admissions of wrongdoing, and Garcia Abrego does not specify the content of his statement. Garcia Abrego stayed the night in Mexico City in the custody of Mexican officials. The next morning, he received injections of a number of blood pressure medications. That afternoon, Mexican officials took Garcia Abrego to the airport in Mexico 13 Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966). 55 City. Garcia Abrego requested an attorney or to be taken before a judge.14. We note for the sake of clarity that the term “Fifth Amendment right to counsel” is something of a misnomer to the extent that it indicates that the Fifth Amendment itself creates a right to counsel. The rights created by Miranda, including the right to have counsel present during custodial interrogation, “are ‘not themselves rights protected by the Constitution but [are] instead measures to insure that the right against compulsory self-incrimination [is] protected.’” Duckworth v. Eagan, 492 U.S. 195, 203 (1989) (quoting Michigan v. Tucker, 417 U.S. 433, 444 (1974)) (alterations in original); United States v. Smith, 7 F.3d 1164, 1170 (5th Cir. 1993). However, because of the pervasiveness of the term’s use in the cases of the Supreme Court and this circuit interpreting the right to counsel created by Miranda, we use it here.15 Mexican officials complied with 14 In a post-oral argument letter brief that, pursuant to court instructions, was to address only the adequacy of record support for arguments that had already been made, Garcia Abrego argues for the first time that his request for a lawyer while in the custody of Mexican authorities constituted an invocation of his Fifth Amendment right to counsel. He therefore contends that his later custodial statement at the FBI office was presumptively involuntary because he was not provided access to a lawyer prior to the statement. See Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 484-85 (1981) (holding that, once the accused asserts this Fifth Amendment right to counsel and thereby “expresse[s] his desire to deal with the police only through counsel, [he] is not subject to further interrogation by the authorities until counsel has been made available to him, unless the accused himself initiates further communication, exchanges, or conversations with the police”). “[T]his court has repeatedly held . . . [that] we will not review arguments raised for the first time in a reply brief.” NLRB v. Cal-Maine Farms, Inc., 998 F.2d 1336, 1342 (5th Cir. 56 neither request. While detained at the airport, Garcia Abrego received two ten-milligram injections of Valium. He was then placed on a Mexican airplane occupied by only Mexican officials and flown to Houston Intercontinental Airport. Shortly after arriving in Houston, Garcia Abrego was released into United States custody and was taken to the Houston FBI office. Upon arrival there, he complained of shoulder and back pains that he alleged resulted from Mexican officials forcibly pushing him to the ground and restraining him. Dr. Gary M. Coleman examined Garcia Abrego, and concluded that he “appeared to be alert[,] . . . was able to converse and answer his questions appropriately[,] . . . did not appear to be somnolent or sleepy, . . . [and did not appear] . . . to be 1993). We will not allow Garcia Abrego to do in a limited postoral argument submission that which he could not do in a reply brief. We therefore decline to resolve Garcia Abrego’s Edwards claim. However, we note that Garcia Abrego does not claim that, at the time that he made his request for counsel, he was being subjected to custodial interrogation. It is highly questionable whether Garcia Abrego could have invoked his Fifth Amendment right to counsel at a point in time prior to custodial interrogation, particularly at a point when he was not even in the custody of U.S. officials. As the Supreme Court observed in McNeil v. Wisconsin, 501 U.S. 171 (1991), We have in fact never held that a person can invoke his Miranda rights anticipatorily, in a context other than “custodial interrogation[.]” . . . Most rights must be asserted when the government seeks to take the action they protect against. The fact that we have allowed the Miranda right to counsel, once asserted, to be effective with respect to future custodial interrogation does not necessarily mean that we will allow it to be asserted initially outside the context of custodial interrogation, with similar future effect. Id. at 182 n.3 (citations omitted); see also Goodwin v. Johnson, 132 F.3d 162, 180 n.14 (5th Cir. 1997). 57 suffering from an excessive amount of any certain medication at the time.” Additionally, the law enforcement officials who interviewed Garcia Abrego testified that he showed no signs of impairment at the time of the interview. Thereafter, U.S. law enforcement officials read Garcia Abrego his Miranda rights in Spanish, and he signed a form acknowledging that he understood his rights. United States law enforcement officials then interviewed him. Agent Hensley testified that Garcia Abrego made a number of denials of particular episodes of criminal activity that were identical to statements that he made to Hensley during the flight from Monterrey to Mexico City. At the suppression hearing, Dr. Coleman testified that an overdose of Valium would be evidenced by signs of somnolence and sleepiness. He also testified that users of Valium develop a tolerance over time and that a given dose of Valium may have varying effects on a particular individual based on a number of other factors, including the level of anxiety the individual is experiencing at the time of administration, his physical size, and the route of administration. Garcia Abrego introduced expert testimony from Dr. Ernest D. Lykissa that a first-time user who received a twenty-milligram dose of Valium would be significantly impaired by the drug and that a person who took all of the medication administered to Garcia Abrego by Mexican doctors would be “literally incapacitated.” However, Dr. Lykissa clarified that a habitual user could withstand a much higher dosage of 58 Valium than a first-time user and that his conclusions regarding the combined effects of the drugs administered to Garcia Abrego were based on an assumption that he received all of the drugs at one time. Dr. Lykissa also testified that some of the hypertension medication that Garcia Abrego received would block his kidneys’ ability to eliminate Valium for a six-hour period. Another expert, Dr. Gloria Keraga, testified that Valium taken in conjunction with one of the medications given to Garcia Abrego could increase suggestibility. Dr. Keraga admitted that these effects might be different for a chronic user of Valium. Agent Hensley testified at the suppression hearing without objection that Garcia Abrego had used Valium on a daily basis for a number of years prior to his arrest.16
Garcia Abrego argues that his custodial statement at the FBI office was the fruit of his initial un-Mirandized statements to Agent Hensley shortly after his arrest and was therefore inadmissible at trial. He also argues that his custodial statement at the FBI office was rendered independently involuntary by the fact that he was under the influence of drugs that made him susceptible to law enforcement officials’ solicitous interrogation. We reject both of these contentions. 16 Additionally, at trial, Francisco Perez testified that he purchased Valium for Garcia Abrego on a number of occasions and that Garcia Abrego used Valium on a daily basis from at least 1980 until 1993. Carlos Resendez testified that he also purchased Valium for Garcia Abrego on occasion and that Garcia Abrego was accustomed to using Valium. 59
Garcia Abrego’s custodial statement at the FBI office was not rendered involuntary by the fact that he previously made unMirandized statements to Agent Hensley. Miranda merely created a prophylactic rule that establishes an irrebuttable presumption of involuntariness with respect to statements made during custodial interrogation that are not preceded by Miranda warnings. See McNeil v. Wisconsin, 501 U.S. 171, 176 (1991). Mirandized statements made subsequent to an un-Mirandized statement are not the illegal fruit of the prior statement unless the prior statement was actually involuntary as opposed to merely presumed involuntary on the basis that it was given without the benefit of Miranda warnings. See Oregon v. Elstad, 470 U.S. 298, 310-11 (1985) (holding that, absent evidence that an unwarned statement was actually the product of police coercion, “a careful and thorough administration of Miranda warnings serves to cure the condition that rendered the unwarned statement inadmissible”). The record provides no indication that Garcia Abrego’s statements to Agent Hensley were involuntary. Therefore, these statements did not taint Garcia Abrego’s later statement at the FBI office.
Garcia Abrego next argues that the drugs that Mexican officials administered to him, coupled with the solicitousness of U.S. law enforcement officials, rendered his custodial statement involuntary. We disagree. When a defendant challenges the voluntariness of a confession, the government must prove its 60 voluntariness by a preponderance of the evidence in order for the confession to be admissible as substantive evidence at the defendant’s criminal trial. See Self v. Collins, 973 F.2d 1198, 1205 (5th Cir. 1992). While the ultimate determination of voluntariness is a question of law reviewed de novo, this court must accept the factual conclusions underlying the district court’s determination of voluntariness unless they are clearly erroneous. See United States v. Restrepo, 994 F.2d 173, 183 (5th Cir. 1993). “A confession is voluntary if, under the totality of the circumstances, the statement is the product of the accused’s free and rational choice.” United States v. Broussard, 80 F.3d 1025, 1033 (5th Cir.), cert. denied sub nom., 117 S. Ct. 264 (1996). “[C]oercive police activity is a necessary predicate to the finding that a confession is not ‘voluntary’ within the meaning of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” Colorado v. Connelly, 479 U.S. 157, 167 (1986). However, “[a] defendant’s mental condition still properly figures into the voluntariness calculus. Police exploitation of the mental condition of a suspect, using ‘subtle forms of psychological persuasion,’ could render a confession involuntary.” United States v. Raymer, 876 F.2d 383, 386-87 (5th Cir. 1989) (quoting Connelly, 479 U.S. at 164). The record contains ample evidence from which the district court could conclude that the drugs that Mexican authorities administered to Garcia Abrego did not impair his mental capacity. 61 Dr. Coleman’s testimony that Garcia Abrego did not appear impaired and evinced none of the symptoms of a Valium overdose, together with the testimony of the officers who interviewed Garcia Abrego that he appeared in no way impaired, provided an adequate basis for the district court’s conclusion that Garcia Abrego’s mental capacity was not impaired as a result of the drugs that he had been administered earlier in the day. Additionally, Agent Hensley’s testimony that, during the interview, Garcia Abrego made many of the same denials of particular episodes of criminal conduct that he had previously made to Hensley during the trip from Monterrey to Mexico when no Valium was in his system indicates that the Valium injections had not diminished Garcia Abrego’s mental capacity. The district court was presented with conflicting expert testimony regarding the probable effect of Valium and the other drugs administered to Garcia Abrego, and the court was free to make credibility assessments regarding the different expert witnesses. See United States v. Ponce, 8 F.3d 989, 998 (5th Cir. 1993). Moreover, the district court was free to accord great weight to the testimony of those individuals who actually observed Garcia Abrego prior to his interview with law enforcement authorities. Thus, we cannot say that the district court’s determination that the medication that Garcia Abrego received did not render him mentally impaired 62 at the time of his interview with law enforcement officials was clearly erroneous.17 Moreover, Garcia Abrego has demonstrated no overreaching by law enforcement officials, which, as noted earlier, is a prerequisite to a determination that a confession is involuntary for purposes of the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause. The mere fact that law enforcement agents were solicitous and attempted to create a favorable climate for confession did not render Garcia Abrego’s statement involuntary. See United States v. Barlow, 41 F.3d 935, 944 n.26 (5th Cir. 1994).18 Garcia Abrego contends that the solicitousness of law enforcement officials constituted an exploitation of his vulnerable mental state. However, as indicated above, the district court had an ample basis for concluding that Garcia Abrego did not possess a vulnerable mental state capable of exploitation. Therefore, the district court properly concluded that the government established by a preponderance of the evidence the voluntariness of Garcia 17 Garcia Abrego also claims that he “was particularly susceptible to entreaties by U.S. authorities” because he alleges that he was mistreated by Mexican authorities and feared their return. The only evidence that the district court heard indicating mistreatment by Mexican authorities consisted of testimony and out-of-court statements from Garcia Abrego himself, and the court was free to make a negative credibility assessment regarding this evidence. See Ponce, 8 F.3d at 998. 18 Additionally, although we have concluded that the district court’s factual determination that the drugs administered to Garcia Abrego had no deleterious effect on his mental condition was not clearly erroneous, it is worth noting that the district court found, on the basis of Agent Hensley’s testimony, that United States law enforcement officials had no involvement in the administration of drugs to Garcia Abrego. This factual determination was not clearly erroneous. 63 Abrego’s statement at the FBI office. The statement was thus admissible as substantive evidence at Garcia Abrego’s trial. J. Validity of Garcia Abrego’s Waiver of His Miranda Rights In an effort to attack the admissibility of his confession from a slightly different angle, Garcia Abrego contends that he did not validly waive his Miranda rights prior to his statement to law enforcement agents at the FBI office. A defendant’s waiver of his Miranda rights is only effective if the waiver is knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily made. See Moran v. Burbine, 475 U.S. 412, 421 (1986). As with the issue of the voluntariness of a custodial confession, a district court’s determination regarding the validity of a defendant’s waiver of his Miranda rights is a question of law reviewed de novo, but this court accepts the factual conclusions underlying the district court’s legal determination unless they are clearly erroneous. See United States v. Flores, 63 F.3d 1342, 1363 (5th Cir. 1995). Additionally, as with a challenge to the voluntariness of a confession, when the defendant challenges the validity of his waiver of his Miranda rights, the government bears the burden of proving the validity of the waiver by a preponderance of the evidence. See United States v. Hurtado, 905 F.2d 74, 76 (5th Cir. 1990). Garcia Abrego does not dispute that the law enforcement officers who interviewed him read him his Miranda rights in Spanish and that he stated to them that he understood each of these rights. However, he argues that his impairment from the 64 medication that he had received from Mexican doctors, coupled with his lack of education and experience with the U.S. judicial system, precluded a knowing and voluntary waiver. In support of his contention that the medication that he received precluded a voluntary waiver, Garcia Abrego points to essentially the same expert testimony to which he points in support of his contention that his custodial statement was involuntary.19 For the same reasons outlined in Part III.I, supra, we conclude that the district court had an adequate basis for concluding that the medication that Garcia Abrego received did not render him mentally impaired at the time law enforcement authorities read him his Miranda rights. In further support of his contention that he could not knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waive his Miranda rights, Garcia Abrego points to the fact that he has only the equivalent of an eighth grade education. He also relies on the district court’s statement in connection with a hearing regarding disqualification of counsel on the basis of conflicts of interest that Garcia Abrego did not understand the conflicts issue and “also [did] not have a rudimentary understanding of his constitutional rights and of the judicial process that now affects his future.” At the hearing that formed the basis of the above statement by the district court, Garcia Abrego disavowed any prior experience with the United States judicial system. At 19 In addition, he points to Dr. Keraga’s testimony that she “[did not] imagine” that he would have been able to understand his Miranda rights. 65 a later hearing, however, Garcia Abrego admitted that he was previously charged with a criminal offense in the Southern District of Texas, was represented by counsel, and pleaded guilty. This experience provided him with some exposure to the U.S. judicial system. Furthermore, Garcia Abrego claimed that his apparent lack of understanding at the previous hearing resulted from the fact that he could not hear properly and felt poorly, and the court concluded that Garcia Abrego had firmly grasped the conflicts issue. The court further concluded, based upon its interactions with Garcia Abrego as well as the testimony of law enforcement officials regarding the answers that Garcia Abrego provided in response to their questioning, that, at the time he waived his Miranda rights, Garcia Abrego “was of keen mind, intelligent, able to understand what was transpiring and was under no type of coercion or government oppression.” As demonstrated above, the record contains ample evidence to support these factual conclusions, and the district court could therefore properly conclude that the government carried its burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that Garcia Abrego knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waived his Miranda rights. K. Admissibility of Evidence Regarding the Effects of Habitual Valium Use Garcia Abrego contends that the district court erred in admitting expert testimony at trial from Dr. Coleman20 that 20 In his brief, Garcia Abrego incorrectly refers to Dr. Coleman as Dr. Lykissa, one of his own experts. 66 habitual use of Valium would diminish the effect of the drug. Like other evidentiary rulings, we review a district court’s decision to admit expert testimony for an abuse of discretion. See United States v. Griffith, 118 F.3d 318, 322-23 (5th Cir. 1997). Garcia Abrego called Dr. Coleman as a witness. During direct examination, counsel for Garcia Abrego questioned Dr. Coleman regarding his medical examination of Garcia Abrego upon his arrival in the United States and about the effects of a number of the medications that Mexican authorities had administered to him. Counsel for Garcia Abrego and Dr. Coleman engaged in the following exchange regarding Dr. Coleman’s knowledge of Valium dependency: Q: Now, do you know anything at all, sir, about Valium habituation or Valium dependency? Have you ever studied the subject in your particular area of expertise? A: In medical school we did study the effect of Valium and other benzodiazepines. Q: But you wouldn’t hold out to be able to render an expert opinion on that, I take it. A: No, not -- it really depends. As a physician who uses these medications on a daily basis, I have to be knowledgeable about those medications. Q: But so far as knowing anything about habituation or dependency or holding out to be an expert, would you or not hold yourself out to be an expert in that area? . . . A: I don’t pretend to be an expert, but I do know something about Valium situations, dependencies. Being a physician, I have to. 67 Q: All right. I understand. I know something about it, being a lawyer. I have to. But neither of us are experts. A: I am not certain what the -- qualifications are needed to be an expert on this medication. Q: Would you not represent yourself here in the court as being an expert? A: On that particular medication, I don’t pretend to be an expert. But as a physician who prescribes the medication, I certainly know quite a bit about it. On cross-examination, the government asked Dr. Coleman a number of questions regarding his medical education, training, and experience. Dr. Coleman testified that he graduated from medical school and subsequently received six years of training in internal medicine. He stated that he had pharmacological training in drugs that cause dependency and that he prescribed drugs such as Valium to patients on a daily basis. The government then asked Dr. Coleman what effect a twenty-milligram dose of Valium would have on a person who had used the drug on a daily basis for eight to ten years. Garcia Abrego objected on the ground that Dr. Coleman “ha[d] testified that he is not qualified as an expert in that area of practice.” The district court overruled the objection on the ground that Dr. Coleman “ha[d] practical experience . . . sufficient to give his opinion.” Dr. Coleman then testified that “[s]omeone who has taken Valium for a long period of time, depending on the doses which he has been taking, . . . may have some resistance to that medication” and that such a person “oftentimes can take dosages 68 which are quite high and not manifest the typical symptoms of sedation of someone who does not use this medication.” Garcia Abrego contends that the district court erred in allowing Dr. Coleman to testify regarding the effects of habitual Valium use because he admitted during direct examination that he was not an expert in the area of Valium dependency. However, Dr. Coleman’s statements to this effect establish nothing more than that Dr. Coleman may have been unfamiliar with the meaning of “expert” as a legal term of art. Given Dr. Coleman’s testimony regarding his medical education and substantial experience in prescribing Valium, we cannot say that the district court abused its discretion in concluding that Dr. Coleman possessed the requisite “knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education” to testify competently regarding the effects of habitual Valium use. See FED. R. EVID. 702. Garcia Abrego also contends that the government’s hypothetical question regarding the effects of a twenty-milligram dose of Valium on a person who has used the drug for many years “is not the type of hearsay reasonably relied upon by experts in [Dr. Coleman’s field]” and that Dr. Coleman’s answer to the question was therefore inadmissible. This argument borders on the frivolous. The hypothetical question itself was obviously not the basis of Dr. Coleman’s opinion. His experience with Valium prescription and patient observation, along with his medical training, formed the basis of his opinion. An expert may testify in response to a hypothetical question containing facts 69 that have evidentiary support in the trial record. See, e.g., United States v. Levine, 80 F.3d 129, 135 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 117 S. Ct. 83 (1996); 2 JOHN HENRY WIGMORE, EVIDENCE §§ 674, 679, 680 (Chadbourn rev. 1979). Garcia Abrego does not dispute that the government presented testimony from two of his coconspirators--Francisco Perez and Carlos Resendez--indicating that Garcia Abrego had used Valium habitually for many years. See note 15, supra. Thus, the district court properly allowed Dr. Coleman to answer the hypothetical question posed by the government. L. Constitutionality of the Criminal Forfeiture Garcia Abrego contends that the district court violated the Double Jeopardy Clause because it based its order of criminal forfeiture on all of the counts for which the jury returned a guilty verdict even though the district court dismissed two of those counts--conspiracy to possess marijuana and cocaine with intent to distribute and conspiracy to import cocaine and marijuana--as lesser-included offenses of conducting a CCE. Garcia Abrego relies on the Supreme Court’s recent holding in Rutledge v. United States, 517 U.S. 292 (1996), that conspiracy to distribute controlled substances is a lesser-included offense of the CCE offense. See id. at 307. He argues that, because he was punished for conducting a CCE, he cannot also be punished for engaging in drug conspiracies. Because the amount that the district court ordered him to forfeit was based upon his engagement in a CCE as well as his engagement in a conspiracy to 70 possess narcotics with intent to distribute and a conspiracy to import narcotics, he argues that the forfeiture violates the Double Jeopardy Clause. Garcia Abrego’s argument lacks merit. In addition to protecting against a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal or conviction, the Double Jeopardy Clause “protects against multiple punishments for the same offense.” Brown v. Ohio, 432 U.S. 161, 165 (1977). The prohibition against multiple punishments for the same offense “is designed to ensure that the sentencing discretion of courts is confined to the limits established by the legislature.” Ohio v. Johnson, 467 U.S. 493, 499 (1984); see also United States v. Halper, 490 U.S. 435, 450 (1989). In this case, the district court ordered Garcia Abrego to forfeit an amount within the limits established by Congress. Section 853(a) of Title 21 of the United States Code, which defines property subject to criminal forfeiture in connection with drug crimes, provides as follows: Any person convicted of a violation of this subchapter or subchapter II of this chapter [which include the drug conspiracies with which Garcia Abrego was charged] punishable by imprisonment for more than one year shall forfeit to the United States, irrespective of any provision of State law-- (1) any property constituting, or derived from, any proceeds the person obtained, directly or indirectly, as the result of such violation; (2) any of the person’s property used, or intended to be used, in any manner or part, to commit, or to facilitate the commission of, such violation; and (3) in the case of a person convicted of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise in violation of section 848 of this title, the person shall forfeit, in addition to any property described in paragraph (1) or (2), any of his interest in, claims against, and 71 property or contractual rights affording a source of control over, the continuing criminal enterprise. 21 U.S.C. § 853(a) (emphasis added). The above language indicates that a defendant convicted of conducting a CCE must forfeit any property or contract rights affording control over the criminal enterprise in addition to the items described in paragraphs (1) and (2) of the provision, which a defendant convicted of conspiracy to possess narcotics with intent to distribute or conspiracy to import narcotics would be forced to forfeit. See id. To the extent that Garcia Abrego’s participation in drug conspiracies constituted lesser-included offenses of his participation in a CCE, the proceeds of the conspiracies were necessarily proceeds of the CCE. Therefore, the amount forfeitable as a result of the conspiracies is necessarily subsumed in the amount forfeitable as a result of the CCE. The statute would have required the district court to order Abrego to forfeit the same amount regardless of whether the court considered the conspiracy counts. Because the amount that the district court ordered Garcia Abrego to forfeit is within the limits set by Congress, the criminal forfeiture comports with the Double Jeopardy Clause. M. Admission of Evidence of Murders Garcia Abrego contends that the district court erred in admitting evidence that he ordered a number of murders. As noted earlier, we review a district court’s evidentiary rulings for an abuse of discretion. See United States v. Torres, 114 F.3d 520, 525-26 (5th Cir.), cert. denied sub nom., 118 S. Ct. 316 (1997), 72 and cert. denied, 118 S. Ct. 316 (1997), and cert. denied sub nom., 118 S. Ct. 316 (1997). Garcia Abrego first contends that evidence that he ordered a number of murders was inadmissible under Rule 404(b) of the Federal Rules of Evidence21 because it constituted evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts offered to prove his bad character and action in conformity therewith. He further complains that he did not receive the notice required by Rule 404(b) when the prosecution intends to offer evidence of prior crimes, wrongs, or other acts for purposes other than proving action in conformity with bad character. Admission of the evidence did not violate Rule 404(b). In order “to avoid the strictures of Rule 404(b) [regarding the admission of character evidence], all the government need do is suggest a logical hypothesis of the relevance of the evidence for purposes other than to demonstrate [the defendant’s] propensity to act in a particular manner.” United States v. Krout, 66 F.3d 21 Rule 404(b) provides as follows: Other crimes, wrongs, or acts. Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show action in conformity therewith. It may, however, be admissible for other purposes, such as proof of motive, opportunity, intent, preparation, plan, knowledge, identity, or absence of mistake or accident, provided that upon request by the accused, the prosecution in a criminal case shall provide reasonable notice in advance of trial, or during trial if the court excuses pretrial notice on good cause shown, of the general nature of any such evidence it intends to introduce at trial. FED. R. EVID. 404(b). 73 1420, 1431 (5th Cir. 1995). Moreover, “evidence of acts committed pursuant to a conspiracy and offered to prove the defendant’s membership or participation in the conspiracy are not extrinsic evidence,” i.e., evidence of “other” acts, for purposes of Rule 404(b). Id.; see also United States v. Miller, 116 F.3d 641, 682 (2d Cir. 1997), petition for cert. filed, 66 U.S.L.W. (U.S. Jan. 26, 1998) (No. 97-7630), and petition for cert. filed, 66 U.S.L.W. (U.S. Feb. 26, 1998) (No. 97-8083). Acts committed in furtherance of the charged conspiracy are themselves part of the act charged. See Miller, 116 F.3d at 682. Thus, evidence of such acts constitutes intrinsic evidence--that is, direct evidence of the charged conspiracy itself. See Miller, 116 F.3d at 682; Krout, 66 F.3d at 1431. The government suggested a logical hypothesis that all of the murders about which it elicited testimony were committed in furtherance of Garcia Abrego’s narcotics trafficking conspiracy. The testimony regarding the murders supports this hypothesis. Specifically, Ricardo Garza testified that Garcia Abrego had Oscar “El Profe” Lopez Olivares kill Casimiro Espinoza in order to eliminate drug trafficking competition in the Matamoros area. Francisco Perez testified that Garcia Abrego told him that he had two Mexican officials killed because they were moving drugs without Garcia Abrego’s knowledge or permission. Perez also testified that Garcia Abrego told him that he intended to have two newspaper reporters killed because they were writing newspaper articles exposing his drug trafficking activities. 74 Horace Vega testified that Medrano told him that the group wished to have Lopez Olivares killed because he threatened to expose high-level members of the group to the U.S. media. All of this testimony indicates that the killings at issue were in furtherance of Garcia Abrego’s drug-trafficking enterprise. Therefore, the evidence of Garcia Abrego’s involvement in the murders was not inadmissible under Rule 404(b)’s prohibition on “[e]vidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts . . . [offered] to show action in conformity therewith.” FED. R. EVID. 404(b). Indeed, it was not evidence of “other crimes, wrongs, or acts” at all. Thus, Rule 404(b) did not require that the government provide Garcia Abrego with advance notice of its intent to offer the evidence. Garcia Abrego also contends that allowing witnesses to testify regarding his involvement in murders violated Rule 403 of the Federal Rules of Evidence.22 He argues that the danger of unfair prejudice created by such testimony substantially outweighed any probative value it might have because the evidence was not pertinent to the charged drug and money laundering offenses. Garcia Abrego argues that the danger of unfair 22 Rule 403 provides as follows: Although relevant, evidence may be excluded if its probative value is substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury, or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence. FED. R. EVID. 403. 75 prejudice was exacerbated by the fact that the government offered no direct evidence that any killings actually occurred, but rather relied strictly upon hearsay statements. Admission of the evidence did not violate Rule 403. “Testimony presented by the government will invariably be prejudicial to a criminal defendant. But Rule 403 only excludes evidence that would be unfairly prejudicial to the defendant.” United States v. Townsend, 31 F.3d 262, 270 (5th Cir. 1994). Because Rule 403 operates to exclude relevant evidence, application of the rule “‘must be cautious and sparing.’” United States v. Pace, 10 F.3d 1106, 1115-16 (5th Cir. 1993) (quoting United States v. McRae, 593 F.2d 700, 707 (5th Cir. 1979)). The acts of violence to which the evidence at issue here related were integral parts of the conspiracies and the CCE with which Garcia Abrego was charged. The fact that the evidence offered by the government consisted only of out-of-court statements accompanied by no physical evidence of murder merely goes to the weight of the evidence rather than its admissibility.23 We therefore conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting testimony regarding Garcia Abrego’s involvement in murders. See Miller, 116 F.3d at 682 (holding that the district 23 Garcia Abrego does not contest on appeal the district court’s determination that Rule 802's general prohibition on the admission of hearsay evidence did not bar the admission of the statements on the ground that they all constituted admissions by a party-opponent. See FED. R. EVID. 801(d)(2) (defining statements of a party and statements of a party’s coconspirator made during and in furtherance of the conspiracy as nonhearsay when such statements are offered against the party). 76 court did not abuse its discretion in admitting evidence of uncharged murders committed in furtherance of the charged narcotics conspiracy). N. Admissibility of Foreign Financial Records In support of its contention that Garcia Abrego derived substantial revenue from his drug trafficking activities, the government offered foreign bank records pertaining to approximately $30 million that it contended was transferred from Mexico to the United States, deposited in bank accounts in McAllen, Texas, and then funneled through the American Express Company to accounts in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands. Garcia Abrego levels a number of attacks at the district court’s admission of these records. Specifically, he argues that admission of the records violated 18 U.S.C. § 3505, the Confrontation Clause, and several of the Federal Rules of Evidence. We address each of these arguments in turn. 1. Section 3505 Garcia Abrego initially challenges the admissibility of the foreign bank records under 18 U.S.C. § 3505. Section 3505 provides in relevant part as follows:
United States, a foreign record of regularly conducted activity, or a copy of such record, shall not be excluded as evidence by the hearsay rule if a foreign certification24 attests that-- 24 Subsection (c) of the statute defines a foreign certification as “a written declaration made and signed in a foreign country by the custodian of a foreign record of regularly conducted activity or another qualified person that, if falsely made, would subject the maker to criminal penalty under the laws 77 (A) such record was made, at or near the time of the occurrence of the matters set forth, by (or from information transmitted by) a person with knowledge of those matters; (B) such record was kept in the course of a regularly conducted business activity; (C) the business activity made such a record as a regular practice; and (D) if such record is not the original, such record is a duplicate of the original; unless the source of information or the method or circumstances of preparation indicate lack of trustworthiness. (2) A foreign certification under this section shall authenticate such record or duplicate.
arraignment as practicable, a party intending to offer in evidence under this section a foreign record of regularly conducted activity shall provide written notice of that intention to each other party. A motion opposing admission in evidence of such record shall be made by the opposing party and determined by the court before trial. Failure by a party to file such motion before trial shall constitute a waiver of objection to such record or duplicate, but the court for cause shown may grant relief from the waiver. 18 U.S.C. § 3505. Garcia Abrego contends that the government failed to comply with the notice requirement contained in § 3505(b) because it did not provide notice of its intention to introduce the foreign records until over six months after his indictment25 even though the government had been in possession of the records in connection with another prosecution for approximately two years.26 Garcia Abrego thus argues that the government did not of that country.” 18 U.S.C. § 3505(c)(2). 25 Garcia Abrego was arraigned on February 6, 1996. The government gave notice that it intended to introduce the records on August 15, 1996. 26 Garcia Abrego also complains that the documents were not accompanied by a proper certification as required by 78 provide notice “as soon after the arraignment as practicable,” as required by the statute and that the records were therefore inadmissible under § 3505. Id. As the district court observed, the government “certainly [did] not act[] with diligence in giving [the] notice” required by § 3505(b). However, we conclude that this lack of diligence did not render the records inadmissible under the statute. The plain language of § 3505 does not make compliance with the notice requirement a prerequisite to the admissibility of evidence under the statute. First, subsection (a) of § 3505, which establishes the requirements for admissibility under the section, makes no reference to subsection (b), which establishes the notice requirement. This would indicate that compliance with the notice requirement is not a precondition of admissibility. Subsection (b) also contains a requirement that the party opposing admission of a foreign record under § 3505 must object before trial or otherwise waive the objection. This would indicate that the provisions of subsection (b) are meant to facilitate pretrial determinations of the admissibility of foreign records under § 3505 rather than establish prerequisites to admissibility under § 3505(a)(1). He argues without further explanation that the certifications were improper because they were made in connection with another criminal case. However, the matters that the statute requires that the certification address mirror the four requirements for rendering a normal business record admissible under the business records exception to the hearsay rule, none of which are case-specific. Compare 13 U.S.C. § 3505(a)(1) with FED. R. EVID. 803(6). Garcia Abrego advances no argument as to why the required contents of the certification would be any different in this case than in the previous one. We therefore reject this argument. 79 the statute. The legislative history of § 3505 bears out this conclusion. The House Report on the bill that ultimately became § 3505 states that “[t]he purpose of the legislation is to make foreignkept business records more readily admissible into evidence in criminal trials in United States courts.” H.R. REP. NO. 98-907, at 2 (1984), reprinted in 1984 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3578, 3578. This general statement of § 3505's purpose indicates that the procedural requirements of subsection (b) are designed to facilitate the admission of foreign business records rather than serve as an impediment to their admissibility. Furthermore, the House Report goes on to state the following: Subsection (b) of section 3505 is intended to promote the resolution before trial of questions concerning the admissibility of foreign business records. Subsection (b) requires that the party intending to offer the foreign business record provide written notification of that intention to all other parties to the case. Any objection to the admissibility of the foreign record must be made in writing and filed with the court before trial, and the court must decide the motion before trial. Failure of a party to raise an objection before trial constitutes a waiver of the objection. The court, for good cause shown, however, can grant relief from the waiver. Id. at 6, reprinted in 1984 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3578, 3582 (emphasis added). This passage indicates that the primary purpose of subsection (b) is to force parties opposing the admission of foreign business records to lodge their objections before trial so that questions of admissibility may be resolved at an early stage. A requirement of early notice of a party’s intention to offer such records is a necessary concomitant to a pretrial 80 determination of their admissibility. Without sufficient pretrial notice of a party’s intention to offer foreign business records, it would certainly be unfair to conclude that the party opposing the admission of such records has waived his or her objections to the admissibility of the records by failing to assert them pretrial. However, were we to conclude that a failure to give timely notice of an intent to offer foreign records under § 3505 bars admission of the records pursuant to the statute, we would flout § 3505’s purpose by turning a requirement intended to facilitate the admission of foreign business records into a procedural barrier impeding their admission. The statute’s legislative history indicates that Congress wished to “promote” pretrial resolution of evidentiary disputes regarding foreign business records, not to require such resolution. Id. Section 3505 “was not intended to add technical roadblocks to the admission of foreign records, but, rather, to streamline the admission of such records.” United States v. Strickland, 935 F.2d 822, 831 (7th Cir. 1991). The government provided Garcia Abrego with notice of its intention to offer the foreign records twenty-six days before the suppression hearing at which the district court made the initial determination of their admissibility and forty-eight days prior to their admission into evidence at his trial. Garcia Abrego never requested more time to investigate the reliability or authenticity of the records and does not now complain that he was in any way prejudiced by the 81 timing of the government’s notice.27 We therefore conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in holding that the foreign bank records were admissible under § 3505.28 2. Confrontation Clause Garcia Abrego next argues that admission of the foreign records violated his rights under the Confrontation Clause because he was unable to cross examine the custodian of the records. He argues that, unlike ordinary domestic business records, foreign records do not occupy a well-rooted exception to the hearsay rule and lack adequate indicia of reliability to be admissible without violating the Confrontation Clause. We disagree. The admission of the foreign business records does not violate the Confrontation Clause so long as the records “bear[] adequate indicia of reliability.” Ohio v. Roberts, 448 U.S. 56, 66 (1980); see also United States v. Ismoila, 100 F.3d 380, 391 27 We express no opinion as to whether a showing of prejudice resulting from untimely notice of an intent to offer foreign records could eliminate § 3505 as a potential pathway for admissibility of foreign business records. 28 Garcia Abrego also argues that the records were inadmissible because some of them were incomplete. He argues that this fact calls into question the integrity and validity of the records, particularly in light of the fact that some of the missing records were available in connection with the previous trial but were unavailable in connection with this one. Garcia Abrego’s claim again lacks merit. He does not argue that the incompleteness of the records was likely to confuse the jury, nor that the incompleteness of the records rendered them irrelevant. The district court could properly conclude that the incompleteness of any of the records went to their evidentiary weight rather than their admissibility. Therefore, the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the records on the ground that they were incomplete. 82 (5th Cir. 1996), cert. denied sub nom., 117 S. Ct. 1712 (1997), and cert. denied sub. nom, 117 S. Ct. 1858 (1997); Sherman v. Scott, 62 F.3d 136, 140 (5th Cir. 1995).29 “Evidence is considered reliable if it falls within a firmly rooted hearsay exception or is otherwise supported by a showing of particularized guarantees of trustworthiness.” Ismoila, 100 F.3d at 391-92. “[E]vidence possessing ‘particularized guarantees of trustworthiness’ must be at least as reliable as evidence admitted under a firmly rooted hearsay exception . . .[and] must similarly be so trustworthy that adversarial testing would add little to its reliability.” Idaho v. Wright, 497 U.S. 805, 821 (1990); see also Sherman, 62 F.3d at 140. We believe that foreign records admissible under § 3505 satisfy these criteria. The legislative history of § 3505 indicates that Congress adopted the statute in part based upon its view that foreign business records accompanied by the certification required by the statute possess an “inherent trustworthiness.” H.R. REP. NO. 98- 29 In Roberts, the Supreme Court stated, “when a hearsay declarant is not present for cross-examination at trial, the Confrontation Clause normally requires a showing that he is unavailable. Even then, his statement is admissible only if it bears adequate ‘indicia of reliability.’” Roberts, 448 U.S. at 66. In White v. Illinois, 502 U.S. 346 (1992), the Court clarified that “Roberts stands for the proposition that unavailability analysis is a necessary part of the Confrontation Clause inquiry only when the challenged out-of-court statements were made in the course of a judicial proceeding.” Id. at 354; see also Ismoila, 100 F.3d at 391; Sherman, 62 F.3d at 140. Because the foreign bank records at issue here do not constitute “statements . . . made in the course of a judicial proceeding,” their admissibility does not hinge upon the presence of the makers of the records to testify at Garcia Abrego’s trial or a showing of their unavailability. 83 907, at 2 (1984), reprinted in 1984 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3578, 3580. Furthermore, the House Report discussing § 3505 indicates that the language in subsection (a) establishing the required contents of the foreign certification “is derived from Rule 803(6) of the Federal Rules of Evidence,” which establishes the business records exception to Rule 802's general exclusion of hearsay, and should therefore “be interpreted in the same manner as the comparable language in Rule 803(6) is interpreted.” Id. at 5, reprinted in 1984 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3578, 3581. “The business records exception is a firmly rooted hearsay exception.” Ismoila, 100 F.3d at 392. Thus, to the extent that § 3505 largely mirrors the business records exception, we are confident that records admissible under the statute are “at least as reliable as evidence admitted under a firmly rooted hearsay exception.” Wright, 497 U.S. at 821. Our conclusion is bolstered by the fact that the statute requires district courts to exclude records otherwise satisfying its requirements if “the source of information or the method or circumstances of preparation indicate lack of trustworthiness.” 18 U.S.C. § 3505(a)(1). In concluding that admission of records under § 3505 does not violate a defendant’s rights under the Confrontation Clause, we join a number of other circuits that have addressed the issue. In United States v. Miller, 830 F.2d 1073, 1078 (9th Cir. 1987), the Ninth Circuit rejected a Confrontation Clause challenge to the admission of foreign bank records under § 3505. In doing so, the court expressed the following rationale: 84 Banks depend on keeping accurate records and although, as we all know, they err occasionally, their records are among the most common type of business record routinely used in our courts. The novelty of the statute is to admit the records without confrontation by the defendant with the recordkeepers. No motive is suggested that would lead bank officials to change, distort, or manipulate the records at issue here. The recordkeepers have, under criminal penalties in their own countries, asserted that the records are records kept in the course of business. Examination of the recordkeepers by counsel for [the defendant] could not reasonably be expected to establish anything more or less than that. If the records were in fact inaccurate, it was within [the defendant’s] power to depose the recordkeepers and challenge the records. . . . As applied in [the defendant’s] case to admit foreign bank records kept in the course of business, section 3505 is constitutional. Id. at 1077-78. Other circuits have reached similar conclusions, and we now do the same. See United States v. Ross, 33 F.3d 1507, 1517 (11th Cir. 1994) (holding that admission of foreign records pursuant to § 3505 did not violate the defendant’s rights under the Confrontation Clause); United States v. Sturman, 951 F.2d 1466, 1490 (6th Cir. 1991) (same). The district court’s admission of foreign bank records pursuant to § 3505 did not violate Garcia Abrego’s rights under the Confrontation Clause.
Garcia Abrego asserts a number of challenges to the admissibility of the foreign bank records under the Federal Rules of Evidence. First, Garcia Abrego challenges the relevance of the evidence on the ground that nothing linked him to the bank accounts to which the documents related. However, one of the accounts described in the record was opened in the name of Maria 85 del Carmen Olivella.30 Garcia Abrego concedes that this is his wife’s name.31 Furthermore, the other accounts listed Ricardo Aguirre as a beneficiary. Francisco Perez testified that, while Garcia Abrego was in hiding in Chicago, he told Perez that he had instructed Aguirre to move $25 million from Monterrey to the United States. Perez testified that he met with Aguirre in Brownsville and that Aguirre told him that he was moving Garcia Abrego’s money through the United States to the Cayman Islands. The funds in the Swiss and Cayman Islands accounts were traceable to accounts in McAllen, Texas owned by the Casa de Cambio Nuevo Leon and the Casa de Cambio Colon, two exchange houses located in Monterrey. All of this evidence provided ample basis for the district court to conclude that the foreign bank records had some tendency to make the fact that Garcia Abrego had derived substantial income from the sale of narcotics, an element 30 Garcia Abrego points out that Olivella was removed as a beneficial owner from this account a few days after it was opened. At most, this is a fact properly considered by the jury in determining the weight to give the records regarding this account in determining whether the funds in the account were traceable to Garcia Abrego. It does not indicate that the records relating to the account are irrelevant. See FED. R. EVID. 401 (“‘Relevant evidence’ means evidence having any tendency to make the existence of any fact that is of consequence to the determination of the action more probable or less probable than it would be without the evidence.” (emphasis added)); cf. Rhodes v. Guiberson Oil Tools, 75 F.3d 989, 998 n.2 (5th Cir. 1996) (en banc) (Emilio M. Garza, J., concurring) (“[T]he standard of relevancy under Rule 401 is intentionally much easier to satisfy . . . than the standard for sufficiency of the evidence . . . .”). 31 Additionally, public records of a land transaction introduced at trial listed Garcia Abrego’s wife as Maria del Carmen Olivella de Garcia. 86 necessary to support his conviction for conducting a CCE, more probable than it would be in the absence of the records. This is all that is necessary to render the evidence legally relevant. See FED. R. EVID. 401. The foreign records were also plainly relevant to the money laundering conspiracy count because they evidenced financial transactions of large sums of money that the jury could reasonably conclude constituted proceeds from the sale of narcotics. Garcia Abrego next contends, without any supporting legal analysis, that admission of the foreign records violated Rule 403 of the Federal Rules of Evidence. Because Garcia Abrego has not demonstrated that the probative value of the records was “substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice, confusion of the issues, or misleading the jury, or by considerations of undue delay, waste of time, or needless presentation of cumulative evidence,” this argument lacks merit. FED. R. EVID. 403. Garcia Abrego next contends, without explanation, that admission of the records violated Rule 404(b) of the Federal Rules of Evidence. This argument also lacks merit. As demonstrated above, the foreign records constituted intrinsic evidence that Garcia Abrego engaged in a CCE and a money laundering conspiracy rather than extrinsic evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts offered to prove Garcia Abrego’s bad character and his propensity to act in conformity therewith. Accordingly, admission of the financial records did not violate 87 Rule 404(b). See United States v. Davis, 19 F.3d 166, 171 (5th Cir. 1994). Finally, Garcia Abrego contends that admission of the foreign bank records violated Rule 802, which generally precludes the admission of hearsay. See FED. R. EVID. 802. This argument ignores the fact that § 3505 creates an exception to Rule 802. See 18 U.S.C. § 3505 (providing that foreign records meeting its criteria “shall not be excluded as evidence by the hearsay rule”); Sturman, 951 F.2d at 1490 (“Section 3505 establishes an exception to the hearsay rule for foreign business documents.”). Rule 802 thus could not operate to preclude admission of the foreign bank records.