Opinion ID: 2998191
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: sufficiency of the evidence

Text: Burke argues that the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to sustain his convictions, particularly his conviction for Count Five. This court reviews a jury’s determination for sufficiency of evidence “in the light most favorable to the government and uphold[s] a jury’s decision if ‘any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.’ ” United States v. Albarran, 233 F.3d 972, 975 (7th Cir. 2000) (quoting Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 319 (1979)). We will overturn a jury’s verdict only if we find that “the record contains no evidence, no matter how the evidence is weighed, from which the jury could have found guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” Id. at 975. We review the district court’s evidentiary rulings for abuse of discretion. Williams, 238 F.3d at 874. There is no question that the record contains sufficient evidence in support of Burke’s conviction on each of the five counts of perjury. There was abundant testimony that Burke offered to smuggle into the MCC a wide range of contraband, including handcuff keys. Further, inmates Rock and Taylor testified that Burke told them that his mother played a critical role in bringing into the building the handcuff key that Erickson used in his escape attempt. Moreover, several inmates stated that they saw and heard Erickson and Burke arguing in the days immediately prior to the escape attempt about a debt and the outrageous price of an item that Burke had provided. Burke focuses on Count Five because it required that the jury find not merely that he told others that he had provided Erickson with the handcuff key, but that he had in fact procured the key for Erickson. The questions and answers contained in Count Five read as follows: Q. Did you provide Mr. Erickson with a handcuff key? A. No, I did not. 20 No. 03-3483 Q. Did you assist in any way in making a handcuff key available to any inmate in the MCC? A. No, I did not. R. at 21. This admission to Rock and Taylor provided the jury with a rational basis to conclude that Burke was lying when he denied providing Erickson with the handcuff key. Furthermore, the jury was adequately instructed that they had to find each perjury element, including the false nature of the declaration contained in Count Five, beyond a reasonable doubt. We are convinced that the government’s evidence was sufficient to support a conviction on Count Five. Burke also contends that the evidence was insufficient because the government’s entire case was based upon the unreliable testimony of inmates who stood to benefit from cooperating with the government. Again, we disagree. It is not the business of this court to second-guess the jury’s credibility determinations. The jury had sufficient reason to find that the testimony given by the government’s witnesses was credible. Tai, Lutrell, and Hogan had all been released from prison by the time they testified, so they had little or nothing to gain by testifying. Also, their stories, along with those of their fellow inmates, were corroborated. For example, Tai, Rock, and Taylor corroborated their testimony with contemporaneous documents that they had either written themselves or received from Burke. Significantly, the two sets of inmates—the first set who knew Burke at the MCC before his initial release on parole and the second set who met him after he was extradited—had never met each other and had served their sentences at different times. Despite that fact, the testimonies they gave were remarkably consistent. For these reasons, we believe that the government’s evidence was credible and sufficient to support the jury’s decision to convict Burke on five counts of perjury. No. 03-3483 21