United States v. Hardison

The Eighth Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm. The court held that the short time period before trial and the concern for efficiency in presenting evidence supported the district court's decision to combine the evidentiary hearing with defendant's bench trial, and to defer ruling on the motion to suppress until all evidence had been presented; there was no structural error undermining the fairness of the criminal proceeding as a whole; no constitutional error occurred when the district court considered defendant's suppression testimony for the purpose of determining his guilt where, at no point either before or during his testimony, did defendant or his attorney explicitly request his testimony be limited only to the motion to suppress; and the district court properly denied defendant's motion to suppress the evidence where defendant consented to a search, and did not abuse its discretion in denying his motion for a new trial. View "United States v. Hardison" on Justia Law