Court Opinion

ID: 9466064
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:04:37.016649+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:31.699182
License: Public Domain

OAKES, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
I would reverse and remand on Count One, the count pertaining to possession of a Colt rifle on May 27, 1977, but affirm on Count Two, the count pertaining to possession of a shotgun and M-l rifle on December 15, 1977, on the concurrent sentence doctrine.
While the question is a close one, there was evidence tending to support appellant’s defense of coercion or duress on the first count. True, the jury could also have found constructive possession, but the count was *669submitted to them on an alternative basis (actual or constructive possession) and hence I think we must assume that they found actual possession, which indeed is conceded. But on the second count they could properly have found either, and there was insufficient evidence of duress or coercion in a legal sense to warrant submission of the defense to the jury.