Court Opinion

ID: 9483518
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:22:52.028084+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:40.114457
License: Public Domain

BAUER, Chief Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. Taking all the evidence as described in the majority opinion as absolutely true, and viewing it in the light most favorable to the government, I still do not find that any sensible juror could find Brigham guilty of the crime of conspiracy beyond a reasonable doubt. At oral argument, counsel for Brigham could only suggest, in answer to a question from the bench as to what explanation he could give for Brigham’s actions on the day in question, “that Brigham might have believed that Amos was picking up counterfeit money rather than drugs.” An unbelievable scenario. The fact is, no one testified as to what exactly Brigham was doing or why he was doing it; no one, in spite of the marvelous totally cooperating witnesses who, if the government’s theory is correct, could have nailed Brigham’s hide to the jailhouse wall. But they didn’t. And it is not Brigham’s missing explanation that is fatal; it is the government’s inability to explain that creates the problem.
Tell us another, indeed, but only if it is the government tale; the accused has absolutely no burden to explain anything. The government accuses, the defendant says “prove it,” and the government says the suspicious activity is enough to convince and convict.
And so it proved.
I would have directed a verdict of “not guilty” had I been the trial judge and I construe my role in review to be the same. I do not believe the evidence sufficient to convince a sensible juror of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The existence of cooperating witnesses who knew all and told nothing virtually implies the missing witness analysis: you had the control, you didn’t produce, I infer the testimony would have been adverse to you.
I would reverse.