Opinion ID: 182739
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sixth Issue: Does Instruction 20 require reversal?

Text: Under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A), a defendant is subject to a mandatory minimum five-year sentence of imprisonment if he or she (1) used or carried a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime or (2) possessed a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. The superseding indictment charged the Vanovers under the second prong of § 924(c). In Instruction 20  tracking Eighth Circuit Model Criminal Jury Instruction 6.18.924C (2007), which was later amended  the district court defined in furtherance of as follows: The phrase possessed in furtherance of means the firearm must have some purpose or effect with respect to the crime of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, distribution of methamphetamine or possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute; its presence or involvement cannot be the result of accident or coincidence. The firearm must facilitate or have the potential to facilitate the offense of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, distribution of methamphetamine or possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute[.] In United States v. Kent, 531 F.3d 642 (8th Cir.2008), we concluded that a materially similar instruction was erroneous. We reasoned that such a definition of possession in furtherance of was almost identical to the Supreme Court's definition of in relation to. Id. at 654-55. Because this court had concluded in a prior case that in furtherance of is a slightly higher level of participation than during and in relation to, see United States v. Gamboa, 439 F.3d 796, 810 (8th Cir.2006), we concluded that an instruction modeled on Eighth Circuit Model Criminal Jury Instruction 6.18.924C (2007) was erroneous because it would allow the jury to convict on the lesser finding of `in relation to.' 531 F.3d at 655. We nonetheless affirmed the conviction, because the defendant did not challenge the jury instruction in the district court or on appeal, and leaving the conviction in place under those circumstances would not seriously affect the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings. Id. at 656-57. It was unnecessary for the Kent opinion to decide whether the error affected the defendant's substantial rights, a question that the panel thought was close. Id. at 656. (A later decision that cites this dictum in reaching a holding in the subsequent decision, see Rush-Richardson, 574 F.3d at 912, does not convert the dictum in Kent to a holding in Kent. Kent was decided on the fourth prong of plain-error analysis, plain and simple. Cf. post at 1122-23.) Since then, we have decided four more cases involving similar erroneous jury instructions based on the former model instruction for § 924(c). In each case, the defendant failed to object at trial, but raised the error on appeal, and we considered the instruction under a plain-error standard of review. In two cases, we reversed convictions, holding that the erroneous instruction affected the defendant's substantial rights and that the error seriously affected the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings. Rush-Richardson, 574 F.3d at 910-13; United States v. Brown, 560 F.3d 754, 766-68 (8th Cir.2009). In two more recent decisions, we held that the erroneous jury instruction did not affect the substantial rights of the defendant, given the strength of the evidence in those cases and the narrow circumstances in which a firearm would be possessed during and in relation to drug trafficking but not in furtherance of drug trafficking. United States v. Mashek, 606 F.3d 922, 931-32 (8th Cir. 2010); United States v. Coleman, 603 F.3d 496, 501-02 (8th Cir.2010). While the concurring opinion finds it not surprising that these precedents are irreconcilable, and characterizes them as a tangle of conflicting prior panel opinions, post at 1125, we believe they can and should be harmonized. The Mashek and Coleman panels both discussed Rush-Richardson, which in turn discussed Brown, and we presume that the later panels followed the prior panel rule in good faith. Where, as here, there is a reasonable basis to reconcile decisions that have come before, that is the proper course for a panel of a multi-member court. We think the evidence against the Vanovers is comparable to the evidence in Mashek and Coleman, and that the error in this case did not affect the substantial rights of the Vanovers. In Mashek, police found loaded firearms in the defendant's house in the same room with methamphetamine manufacturing equipment and surveillance equipment. 606 F.3d at 932. In Coleman, police seized a loaded firearm and distribution quantities of cocaine and ecstasy from a glove box directly in front of the defendant in a vehicle. 603 F.3d at 501. In this case, police found a loaded High Point pistol under a mattress in the Vanovers' bedroom, positioned near the edge of the bed for easy access, in the same room with a saleable quantity of drugs, $4000 in cash, packaging materials, a scale, and other drug paraphernalia, and adjacent to a room in which Barbara sold methamphetamine. Under those circumstances, we see no reasonable probability that the outcome would have been different if the jury had been instructed correctly on the meaning of in furtherance. The evidence here is stronger than in Rush-Richardson and Brown, where we held that a comparable instructional error affected a defendant's substantial rights. In Rush-Richardson, the seized firearms were located in different rooms from measurable quantities of drugs  one in a bag in a bedroom closet and two others in a bag on top of kitchen cabinets. 574 F.3d at 912. (The opinion in Rush-Richardson made much of the absence of fingerprints on the firearms, id., but none of these five cases involved evidence of the defendant's fingerprints, so the point is immaterial when comparing the cases.) In Brown, one seized firearm was found along with a large amount of cash and a scale in a vehicle belonging to the defendant, but the gun and vehicle were stored at a warehouse, there is no indication that the gun was loaded, and the only controlled substance found in the vicinity was a small amount of marijuana. 560 F.3d at 761. Another firearm was found with 35 pounds of marijuana, a bullet proof vest and ammunition, but this gun was located in a storage unit rented by a co-conspirator, rather than by the defendant, and there is no indication that it was loaded. [8] Id. The inference that the defendant in Brown possessed these firearms in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense, while strong enough to convince some that the instructional error should have been deemed harmless, see post at 1123-24, was not as powerful as the inference in this case, where the defendants kept a loaded and readily-accessible pistol in their bedroom with saleable drugs, drug trafficking material, and a substantial amount of cash. We therefore conclude that the Vanovers have failed to demonstrate a plain error warranting relief.