Court Opinion

ID: 9483410
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:19:41.777591+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:36.841893
License: Public Domain

SEYMOUR, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I join the opinion in this case but I write separately to emphasize an important point. As the majority notes, the government has admitted that it presented “no evidence of guilt that might come under the rubric of ‘conscious avoidance.’ ” Brief of Appellee at 24; see maj. op. at 1552. This court has held unequivocally that the giving of a deliberate indifference instruction is error when, as here, there is no evidence showing that the defendant deliberately acted to avoid actual knowledge. See United States v. Barbee, 968 F.2d 1026, 1033 (10th Cir.1992); United States v. de Francisco-Lopez, 939 F.2d 1405, 1408-12 (10th Cir.1991); United States v. Manriquez Arbizo, 833 F.2d 244, 248-49 (10th Cir.1987). Giving the instruction in this case was therefore clearly error, and the majority opinion can not be read to say otherwise.
I also agree with the majority’s conclusion that the erroneous giving of this instruction was harmless. As we pointed out in Barbee, “[t]he concern with a deliberate indifference instruction is that it may lead a jury to convict a defendant for his or her negligence instead of for willfulness or intent.” 968 F.2d at 1033. The form of the instruction given here, together with the substantial evidence of Sasser’s direct knowledge of his fraudulent activity, convinces me that under Barbee the error was harmless. See id. at 1035 (overwhelming evidence of actual, direct knowledge renders erroneous deliberate indifference instruction harmless). Accordingly, I concur.