Justia U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of defendant's motion to suppress images and videos retrieved from his cell phone. The court held that the district court correctly determined that investigators and prosecutors were permitted to use the images and video from defendant's phone that an acquaintance viewed on his own initiative. In this case, the Fourth Amendment does not extend to private searches that are neither instigated nor performed on behalf of a government entity; defendant's acquaintance acted entirely on his own when he searched defendant's cell phone; and the agents examining the phone went no further than the private search when they examined the phone. As to the remainder of the materials found on the phone, the court held that the state investigators reasonably understood the state warrant to authorize a search of the phone. View "United States v. Suellentrop" on Justia Law

The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's denial of defendant's motion to suppress evidence seized at his residence, as well as statements he made to officers at his residence and at the police station. The court held that the search warrant was supported by probable cause where defendant had prior drug convictions for possession and manufacturing/delivery of controlled substances; a search of the trash at his residence yielded evidence of illegal drug activity; and a rental car was located in the driveway along with defendant's own vehicle.The court also held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying a Franks hearing where defendant failed to make either the requisite showing of intentional or reckless falsehood or omission, or that the probable cause analysis would change if the affidavit was modified as suggested. View "United States v. Turner" on Justia Law

The Eighth Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction for transportation of pornography and receipt of child pornography. The court held that the district court did not err in allowing the government to introduce independently downloaded child pornography videos which matched the hash values, name, length and thumbnail images of files deleted from defendant's phone and SD card as the videos were relevant to establishing that defendant knowingly downloaded child pornography; the district court did not err by admitting a summary exhibit of videos; even if the exhibit made conclusions or assumptions, its admission was harmless; admission of child erotica images was permissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b), and even if its admission was error, the error was harmless; and there was no error in limiting the jury instruction regarding child erotica. View "United States v. Fechner" on Justia Law

The Eighth Circuit denied a petition for review of the BIA's final order of removal following her appeal of the IJ's removal order denying her applications for asylum and withholding of removal. The court held that petitioner's Minnesota drug convictions constituted grounds for removal and rejected petitioner's claim that the statute was overbroad and indivisible. The court lacked jurisdiction to review petitioner's claim that she was not subject to removal under 8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(6)(A)(i). The court also held that the criminal alien bar precluded the court's review of the BIA's decision on petitioner's applications for asylum and withholding of removal. In this case, petitioner did not qualify for the extraordinary circumstances exception to the one-year deadline for filing an asylum application, and the court lacked jurisdiction to review petitioner's claim that she suffered persecution as a member of a protected group. The court also held that the BIA did not abuse its discretion in declining to terminate the removal proceedings, and petitioner's remaining claims were rejected. View "Villegas Rendon v. Barr" on Justia Law

After the United States simultaneously prosecuted and removed defendant, he sought to dismiss the indictment. Defendant argued that the Executive Branch violated his rights under the Bail Reform Act (BRA) and the Constitution by simultaneously proceeding with prosecution and removal.The Eighth Circuit held that the BRA and the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) co-exist, and that Subsection 3142(d) of the BRA does not conflict with removal under the INA. The court explained that the subsection regulates a "judicial officer," not an Executive Branch official, like an ICE agent; it requires the judicial officer to provide notice and ten-day detention, so immigration officials may detain a non-citizen defendant who poses a risk of flight or danger, but does not mandate that immigration officials detain then and only then; and, if immigration officials do detain then, the subsection does not state that the judicial officer or prosecution must dismiss criminal charges. Furthermore, if the immigration official does not detain within ten days, the non-citizen defendant shall be treated in accordance with the other provisions. The other provisions of the BRA do no preclude removal under the INA. The court rejected defendant's remaining arguments to the contrary. View "United States v. Pacheco-Poo" on Justia Law

The Eighth Circuit affirmed Defendants Pugh and Warren's convictions for drug related crimes and affirmed Pugh's sentence. The court held that the informant's testimony, together with the government's other evidence, was sufficient to support Pugh's convictions; the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Pugh's proposed jury instruction; there was no error in admitting under Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b), a certified copy of Pugh's 2010 information and guilty plea on the Illinois attempted robbery in order to show knowledge and intent; Pugh's Rehaif challenge failed, because sufficient evidence existed such that a reasonable jury could find that Pugh knew of his prohibited status, and because Pugh cannot show a reasonable probability of a different outcome absent the instructional error; and defendant's prior conviction in Illinois for attempted robbery qualifies as a crime of violence for purposes of USSG 2K2.1(a)(4)(a).In regard to Warren's challenges, the court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion by admitting evidence of two prior convictions to prove knowledge and intent, and Warren's Rehaif challenge failed for the same reasons as Pugh's Rehaif claim. View "United States v. Warren" on Justia Law

The Eighth Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction as a career offender under USSG 4B1.1 based on his controlled substance convictions in Illinois and in Iowa. The court held that the district court did not err in concluding that defendant's Iowa and Illinois controlled substance convictions qualified as predicates for career offender sentencing. The court declined to find that the Illinois and Iowa statutes are categorically not career-offender predicates because they include the word "deliver," which may not involve a commercial activity; the Illinois and Iowa convictions are not overbroad; and defendant's remaining claims to the contrary were rejected. View "United States v. Clayborn" on Justia Law

The Eighth Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction for possessing a firearm, possessing with intent to distribute a controlled substance, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and possessing a stolen firearm. The court held that there was no error in admitting eyewitness identification evidence, because the show-up identification was not impermissibly suggestive and the identification was reliable; the district court did not abuse its discretion by failing to instruct the jury on eyewitness identification where the government's case did not rest solely on questionable eyewitness identification; there was no Sixth Amendment violation of defendant's right to counsel where the district court allowed defendant to give his own closing argument, defendant was still represented by counsel and received advice, there was no duty to conduct a Faretta hearing, and defendant knowingly and intelligently waived his right to counsel; and the evidence was sufficient to support defendant's conviction. View "United States v. Heard" on Justia Law

The Eighth Circuit affirmed defendant's sentence imposed after he pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine base. The court held that the district court's application of the sentencing guidelines did not result in impermissible double-counting. In this case, by considering the December 2017 drug quantity under USSG 2D1.1, while also considering defendant's December 2017 supervised release status under USSG 4A1.1(d), the district court did not penalize defendant twice for the same conduct. Rather, the court explained that the district court evaluated the seriousness of the offense and defendant's criminal history. View "United States v. Jones" on Justia Law

Plaintiffs, a group of pretrial arrestees who were detained in St. Louis jails, filed a 42 U.S.C. 1983 action, challenging the constitutionality of the procedures by which defendants, state and city officials, set money bail.The Eighth Circuit reversed the district court's grant of plaintiffs' motion for class certification and entry of a preliminary injunction enjoining the enforcement of any monetary condition of release resulting in detention. In this case, the district court resorted to the extraordinary remedy of injunctive relief without adequately considering the new rules and their implementation. The district court abused its discretion by interjecting the power of the federal government into the Missouri Supreme Court's attempt to police its own lower courts, without contemplating what this would mean for federal-state relations. On remand, the district court should consider the effect of the rule changes on the question of whether a preliminary injunction served the public interest in comity between the state and federal judiciaries, as well as the necessity of an injunction. View "Dixon v. City of St. Louis" on Justia Law