Opinion ID: 161472
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Motion for Judgment of Acquittal and Proposed Jury Instruction

Text: 8 Eaton claims the district court should have granted his motion for judgment of acquittal or, in the alternative, should have given his proposed jury instruction pursuant to United States v. Dalton, 960 F.2d 121 (10th Cir. 1992). A district court's denial of a motion for judgment of acquittal is reviewed de novo. See United States v. Schluneger, 184 F.3d 1154, 1158 (10th Cir.1999). Although this court reviews a district court's refusal to give a particular jury instruction for abuse of discretion, we examine the instructions as a whole de novo to determine whether the instructions adequately state the governing law. See United States v. Pacheco, 154 F.3d 1236, 1238 (10th Cir. 1998). 9 In Dalton, this court held that due process barred a defendant's conviction under a statute that punished his failure to register a machinegun when the registration of a machinegun was precluded by law. See 960 F.2d at 122. Eaton analogizes his case to Dalton, claiming it was impossible for him to register a pipe bomb with the ATF and he therefore cannot be punished for his failure to comply with the registration statute. Dalton involved a situation in which a particular statute criminalized possession of a machine gun, thereby making gun registration legally impossible. See id. at 122-23; see also 18 U.S.C. 922(o)(1) ([I]t shall be unlawful for any person to transfer or possess a machinegun.). There is no similar statute criminalizing the possession of a destructive device such as a pipe bomb. Without such a statute, it was not legally impossible for Eaton to register the pipe bomb. See United States v. McCollom, 12 F.3d 968, 971 (10th Cir. 1993). He could have imprinted a serial number on the pipe bomb and attempted to register it with the ATF. Whether the ATF would have accepted the pipe bomb for registration does not bear on the issue of legal impossibility. See id. Thus, Eaton was not deprived of due process. 2