Court Opinion

ID: 9478795
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:58:24.339484+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:37.424618
License: Public Domain

BECKER, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I join in Parts I and II and footnote 3 of the majority’s opinion, and I join in the judgment insofar as it reverses the conviction under the Travel Act. I write separately on the Travel Act conviction, be*776cause I believe that it should be reversed on different grounds.
I agree with the majority that a conviction requires proof of some overt act after the travel. However, I believe that the majority’s test for determining whether such an overt act has occurred will prove exceedingly difficult to apply. The majority states that “the government cannot rely on those acts that are inseparable from the interstate travel itself.” Maj. Op. at 775. If deplaning, entering the terminal, and getting luggage are inseparably part of the interstate travel, I fail to see at what point the travel ceases and the Travel Act activity may properly be said to begin. I therefore fear, despite the majority’s assertion to the contrary, that its holding may immunize activity in airports. In my view the actions of deplaning and entering the terminal and getting luggage may be sufficient for a finding that an overt act in furtherance of a conspiracy had been committed. If they had been proved by the government here, I would hold that they are also sufficient to satisfy the overt act requirement of the Travel Act, assuming the requisite intent to carry out the scheme had also been proved.
Although the majority states that the “government introduced no ... proof ... [that Zolicoffer] was purposefully en route to an appointed site where he was expecting to receive the fruits of his unlawful activity,” Maj. Op. at 775, I believe there to be sufficient record evidence indicating that Zolicoffer had the requisite intent upon deplaning. In fact, the majority holds, and I join in that holding, that the telephone calls between Zolicoffer and Oy-ler were sufficient evidence of facilitation of the conspiracy. Maj. Op. at 773. If they were sufficient evidence of facilitation, I fail to see how they could not be sufficient evidence of Zolicoffer’s intent to carry on the acts of the conspiracy. Moreover, as the appellant says in his brief, “[t]he telephone calls from February 1, 1988, through February 11, 1988, all represented attempts by Zolicoffer to get his money owed him or to check up on the money which was for cocaine previously supplied.” Appellant’s Br. at 28.
Even though the government has provided sufficient evidence of Zolicoffer’s intent, I would reverse the district court’s judgment of sentence as to the Travel Act, because, as the majority points out, there is no evidence of record that Zolicoffer in fact did anything after the plane landed. Maj. Op. at 775. Although the government argues — and I agree — that the acts of deplaning and walking through the airport are sufficient to constitute an overt act for purposes of the Travel Act, the government failed to produce evidence of any act post deplaning. Government counsel conceded this at oral argument. Absent such evidence, we cannot be certain that any act occurred after the plane landed and therefore cannot sustain a conviction under the Travel Act.