Court Opinion

ID: 9499391
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:47:37.199394+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:29.019827
License: Public Domain

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge,
dissenting from the judgment.
I join much of the majority opinion, but disagree that the misjoinder of the indictment is harmless error. I would hold that erroneously joining the two counts — falsifying one’s own immigration documents, and conspiring over a substantial period of time to aid other persons to enter into fraudulent marriages in violation of the immigration laws — had a “substantial and injurious effect” upon the jury’s determination. United States v. Lane, 474 U.S. 438, 449, 106 S.Ct. 725, 88 L.Ed.2d 814 (1986).
Although the majority characterizes the evidence of guilt under both counts as “overwhelming,” Maj. at 580, the evidence with respect to the falsification of the defendant’s own immigration documents is clearly not. Jawara never denied that there were material errors in his asylum application. To the contrary, he aeknowl-*586edged the errors in the application, but testified that he was not aware of their existence because another individual prepared the document for him. He also testified that he was unaware of any problems regarding the supporting documents and that he had received the identification card from a government office and his birth certificate from his brother in Sierra Leone. The crucial issue with respect to the document fraud charge, thus, was Ja-wara’s credibility. Although the government presented an expert witness whose testimony rendered some of Jawara’s testimony implausible, if the jury nevertheless believed his explanations it would have acquitted him on that charge.
In the vast majority of cases, and especially in cases in which a defendant’s credibility is the crucial issue, the most prejudicial evidence the prosecution can present— perhaps aside from a confession — is testimony establishing that the defendant has committed other serious crimes and is a bad person generally. Evidence of other crimes is particularly damning when the other crimes, as in this case, are of the same general type (here, immigration offenses) as the offense with which the defendant is charged. Here, it is plain not only that Jawara’s credibility was undermined, but that his entire defense to the document fraud charge was destroyed when the prosecution was allowed not only to inform, but to persuade, the jury that following his own immigration violations Jawara engaged in a course of criminal conduct in violation of the immigration laws — that he engaged in a continuous pattern of immigration fraud in aiding others to arrange fraudulent marriages to circumvent the immigration statutes. Once the jury reached its conclusion that Jawara had committed the serious criminal offense of conspiring over an extended period of time to aid others to fraudulently violate the immigration laws, so that they would become eligible to remain in the United States, it was almost inevitable that it would believe that Jawara violated the immigration laws with respect to his own immigration papers so that he would be able to remain here. The case with respect to Jawara’s unlawful aid to others having been proven, it is unreasonable to expect that the jury would consider the question of Jawara’s falsification of his own documents solely on the evidence relative to that count. Persuading the jury of Jawara’s guilt on the more serious conspiracy charge eliminated any real possibility that it would accept his contention that he was unaware of the misrepresentations in his own application and the errors in his other documents.
Prejudice can arise even more readily than in the average case when there is misjoinder of a crime that would be particularly disturbing to the average juror. Conspiring to violate the immigration laws by aiding a number of aliens to remain in the country unlawfully and obtain permanent resident status would be highly offensive to many jurors these days. In United States v. Terry, 911 F.2d 272 (9th Cir.1990), a leading case on misjoinder, we held that the district court erred under Rule 8(a) in joining two drug-related charges with a count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. We concluded that the misjoinder prejudiced the defendant:
A juror would inevitably be more disturbed about the idea of a “drug dealer” with a gun than a citizen who previously had committed some unknown crime. It is highly probable that this inculpatory characterization of Terry as a drug dealer influenced the jury in determining its verdict.
Id. at 277. Similarly, here, the jury likely was influenced, in determining whether Ja-wara was guilty of submitting his own *587fraudulent immigration document, by its conclusion that he had in fact conspired to commit immigration fraud to aid others over an extended period of time.
Furthermore, a “substantial disparity” in the strength of the evidence of two separate offenses which are joined can “taint[] the jury’s consideration” of the offense for which there is weaker evidence. Bean v. Calderon, 163 F.3d 1073, 1085 (9th Cir.1998) (citing Lucero v. Kerby, 133 F.3d 1299, 1315 (10th Cir.1998)). By hearing far stronger evidence on the conspiracy charge than the document fraud charge, the jury may have experienced “ ‘the human tendency to draw a conclusion which is impermissible in the law: because he did it before, he must have done it again.’ ” Id. (quoting United States v. Bagley, 772 F.2d 482, 488 (9th Cir.1985)).
Although the majority relies heavily on its technical arguments that the district court’s error was mitigated by the instruction that the jury consider the counts separately, Maj. at 580, and that the jury could compartmentalize the evidence as to each charge, these-factors, while not irrelevant, are hardly sufficient to overcome the overwhelming actual prejudice created in this case by joinder with the conspiracy charge.
For these reasons, I would find the improper joinder prejudicial, at least with respect .to the document fraud charge. Accordingly, I dissent from the majority’s holding that there was no prejudice in this case.
Because I would- reverse on misjoinder, I need not consider whether .the Confrontation Clause also requires reversal, under Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004). However, as I have stated, the evidence on the document fraud charge is comparatively weak. Thus, I do not agree with the majority’s determination' of harmless error with respect to the expert testimony regarding the State Department country reports.