Court Opinion

ID: 9499034
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:36:07.83642+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:14.830479
License: Public Domain

DIANA GRIBBON MOTZ, Circuit Judge,
concurring in Parts I and IIA and B and in the judgment:
As Judge Hamilton explains in his excellent opinion for the majority, in this case the Government presented evidence sufficient to support William Moye’s convictions for being a felon in possession of firearms and for possession of stolen firearms. I write separately because I believe that the district court erred in giving a general aiding and abetting instruction. That error, however, was harmless, and so I agree that we must affirm the judgment of the district court.
A court may only give a requested jury instruction if an evidentiary foundation for the instruction exists. See United States v. Schnabel, 939 F.2d 197, 203-04 (4th Cir.1991). Here, the Government concedes that “over the objection of appellant,” the district court gave an aiding and abetting instruction that applied to both counts in the indictment. See Brief of Appellee at 4. The Government, however, presented no evidence that either Briggs or Cooper was a felon. Thus, there was no evidentiary foundation to support an aiding and abetting instruction on the felon in possession count (Count One); the court thus erred in giving a general instruction that applied to both counts. Indeed, the Government conceded error during the panel argument, admitting that the district court should not have instructed the jury as to aiding and abetting on Count One.
Although the aiding and abetting instruction for the felon-in-possession count was error, the error was harmless. The Government presented ample evidence to support Moye’s conviction as a principal on Count One. However, the district court instructed the jurors that to find Moye “guilty ... as an aider and abettor,” they would have to find beyond a reasonable doubt that the Government “has proved that another person actually committed the offense with which he has been charged.” Given the absence of any evidence that Briggs or Cooper were felons, the jury could not have found that Moye aided or abetted “another person” who “actually committed” the offense of being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) (2000). If the jurors followed the district court’s instructions, which we must presume that they did, see United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 740, 113 S.Ct. 1770, 123 L.Ed.2d 508 (1993), they could not have convicted Moye on Count One on the basis of an aiding and abetting theory. Therefore, we must conclude that the jury’s guilty verdict with respect to Count One relied on the substantial evidence of Moye’s guilt as a principal and that the district court’s error in giving a generalized aiding and abetting instruction was harmless.
For these reasons, I concur in Parts I and IIA and B of the majority opinion and in the judgment. Judge Michael joins in this opinion.