Court Opinion

ID: 9472806
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:11:34.255603+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:09.661566
License: Public Domain

FLETCHER, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
I
The majority holds that it was proper under the facts of this case for the trial court to give the Jewell instruction. See United States v. Jewell, 532 F.2d 697 (9th Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 426 U.S. 951, 96 S.Ct. 3173, 49 L.Ed.2d 1188 (1976). Although I agree with the majority’s statement that “the facts must support the inference that the defendant was aware of a high probability of the existence of the fact in question,” Maj. op. at 5 (citing United States v. Suttiswad, 696 F.2d 645, 652 (9th Cir.1982); Jewell, 532 F.2d at 704 n. 21), I do not agree that this requirement has been met.
Specifically, the majority acknowledges that the government must prove that McAllister knew both that the aliens were in the United States illegally and that their last entry was within three years last past. See 8 U.S.C. § 1324 (1982). For the Jewell instruction to be applicable then, the facts must support the inference that McAllister was aware of a high probability of there being aliens in the truck and that they had entered the United States in the last three years. Yet, the majority points to no evidence that McAllister even knew that there were people in the truck, let alone that they were illegal aliens who had entered within the last three years.
The facts of whieh McAllister was aware could just as easily point to illegal drugs, stolen goods, or a myriad of other crimes— some with lesser and some with greater penalties. As we recognized in United States v. Murrieta-Bejarano, 552 F.2d 1323, 1325 (9th Cir.1977), “[a] particular defendant may not have deliberately remained ignorant and not have affirmatively believed that — for example — the truck did not contain drugs. He might simply not have known one way or the other without any effort on his part-to avoid learning the truth.” This is such a case. The government cannot use proof of willful blindness to activity that could relate to the commission of any of several crimes to prove specific intent to commit a particular crime; the blindness must relate to the essential facts that prove the crime charged. See Suttiswad, 696 F.2d at 612; Jewell, 532 F.2d at 704 n. 21.
II
While I dissent from the majority’s holding that the Jewell instruction was justified, I concur in the conclusion reached by the majority regarding McAllister’s claim that his Fed.R.Crim.P. 16 rights were violated. The claimed omission was trivial, inadvertent and harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.