Opinion ID: 2790833
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Cross-Examination on Maximum Penalty

Text: After Robbins testified about his guilty plea on direct examination, Foley twice sought to elicit information on crossexamination concerning the maximum statutory penalty that Robbins faced for misprision of a felony. After the district court sustained the government's objection to this questioning, Foley moved for a jury instruction on the relative penalties for misprision of a felony and wire fraud, which the court denied. Foley contends that this evidence was absolutely vital to the jury's assessment of Robbins's credibility, because the jury was unaware that by pleading guilty to misprision of a felony and avoiding wire fraud charges, Robbins had dramatically reduced his statutory exposure . . . on each count by 85 percent. But Foley himself concedes that the jury was aware that Robbins was expecting to receive leniency in exchange for his testimony. More detail concerning the respective statutory maxima of the two crimes was neither necessary nor even particularly relevant given that the statutory maximum is rarely probative of the penalty a defendant will receive. See United States v. Mulinelli-Navas, 111 F.3d 983, 987-88 (1st Cir. 1997) (finding no abuse of discretion where the district court limited cross-examination concerning witnesses' maximum potential sentences; [t]he jury could infer from the circumstances that the accomplices had avoided being charged with offenses carrying greater sentences by testifying in the -21- government's case, and information concerning potential sentences could have confused the jury by presenting it with the potential punishment faced by the defendant herself); see also United States v. Larson, 495 F.3d 1094, 1106 (9th Cir. 2007) (en banc) (The potential maximum statutory sentence . . . lacks significant probative force because a defendant seldom receives the maximum penalty permissible under the statute of conviction.).10 We therefore find no abuse of discretion.