Court Opinion

ID: 9475049
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:16:15.231696+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:29.306607
License: Public Domain

CHURCHILL, District Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent because, in my opinion, there was insufficient evidence to support a conviction on either count.
The only participants in the sham transaction giving rise to the defendant’s convictions, other than the defendant, were federal agents acting as cocaine distributors. This is significant because the defendant could not have been charged with aiding and abetting or with conspiracy. Rather he was convicted of two counts of attempted constructive possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.
I take no exception to the definition of constructive possession in the majority opinion nor with the issue therein defined.1 It is my opinion, however, that the evidence did not justify a jury in finding that the defendant was in constructive possession of the substitute substance. He did not handle it. He did not enter a vehicle in which a substance was transported. He suggested an area for an airplane drop and then acted as a mere guard.
I likewise do not take issue with the statement of policy factors set forth in the majority opinion. The defendant’s conduct was reprehensible but, in my view, he did not commit the offense with which he was charged. The end does not justify the means.

. In at least one circuit, the concept of constructive possession may be more restrictive. The Eleventh Circuit Pattern Jury Instruction definition of possession includes the following more restrictive language. "A person who has direct physical control of something on or around his person is then in actual possession of it. A person who is not in actual possession, but who has both the power and the intention to later take control over something either alone or together with someone else, is in constructive possession of it." I do not suggest that the rule in this circuit is this narrow. The definition in the majority opinion is an expansive definition which has been given a uniquely expansive application.