Professional Documents
Culture Documents
COFFIN,
These
are
cross-appeals
citizen
courier
from Aruba
and U.S.
to the
resident,
United
for serving
States, in
as
a heroin
violation of
21
U.S.C.
841(a)(1)
intent
to distribute),
U.S.
(possession of
952(a)
controlled substances
with
(importing such
substances into
955 (possession on
an aircraft of
improperly
investigation
source
principal
into
of supply,
deliberately
government.
claims
failed
she
the
government
applicable minimum
months in the
the
that
results
provided about
of the
appeals
her
sentence
the
of its
Aruba
argument
facts known
the
are
prosecutor's closing
appeal
to disclose
information
and that
on
to the
imposed,
mandatory sentence
of
60 months
to 41
requesting such a
departure.
Since we conclude that the
On June 26, 1992, defendant was the last to leave flight 627
after its
arrival in
San
customs
inspector, having
Customs
Declaration
defendant's luggage
Card,
Juan, Puerto
asked
for
proceeded
and person.
-3-
Rico,
from Aruba.
and received
with
Although
an
defendant's
inspection
nothing unusual
of
was
revealed
by the
inspection, the
inspector
became increasingly
passport
revealed
her
married
status),
her
subsequent
of her husband,
Chicago.
A
computer
criminal
down"
check
revealed no
involvements recorded in
"intelligence
lookouts" or
a "pat-
results.
Then,
swallower,"
on
suspicion that
customs
special
As she
disrobed,
defendant was
agent,
Ana
an "internal
Rolon,
obtained
she
was
observed putting
in
her
field tested
and shown
as soon
expelled the
similar pellets
the
heroin.
Meanwhile, x-rays
three
results were
foreign objects,
of heroin powder.
Defendant
known and
which proved
to be
found in
the
above
scenario
concerning defendant's
suggests,
possession and
the
objective
importation were
facts
clearly
-4-
established.
Defendant's
into her role as a courier by the man she had visited in Aruba.
Immediately
Friday afternoon,
there would be
late on a
When she
Monday, she
to talk
After
judge
that the
of the
drugs was
that their
to cooperate
the following day, June 27, since the prospective recipient might
still be expecting a phone call from Udechukwu.
In
following up on
referred by
attorney.
a customs supervisor
to an assistant
United States
over
On
Monday, June 29, appellant was debriefed by agents Rolon and Baez
in
counsel Brill's
agent
Baez
were
presence.
Contemporaneous
apparently
Investigation" issued
the
basis
for
notes taken
a
"Report
later, on August
by
of
25, ten
as Michael Mouhma, who had lived with appellant and her family in
1982 for six
but,
for some
months.
Michael had
untold reason,
had
his visa
canceled in
come . . . ."
to
hurt
Defendant bought
1992.
in 1988
Michael forced
her to carry the contraband in her vagina and rectum, telling her
that
her
husband had
been
arrested
in
the contraband
phone number of
internally.
Mexico in
1989
when
had given
the
in 1989 to
the
which
United
States,
she believed
had
Michael proposed
She was afraid
talking with
that she
She told of
resulted
to travel alone
in a
visit to
to Mexico
change in plans.
his
her
and, after
in
join him
into
When she
her of
to
carry some
packages
compliance, he threatened
for
him to
Chicago.
To
ensure
her
and that it
call to
work.
pellets.
"get action."
worked, where
The day
called a friend
and
a phone
where
went to
phone did
inserting some
was apprehended
her children
assisted in
after she
He knew
of the
in San Juan,
she
Nigerian community.
What the Government Knew
________________________
to
corroborate
obtain
evidence
her account
from
of what
the
government
had happened.
until
after
she
argues that
Michael
would
In particular,
her identification of
that
in drug trafficking
the
government knew,
before trial, that Michael Mouma (his correct surname) had been a
drug
several years.
Since
Before trial.
____________
From
the
beginning,
June
26,
counsel had
conveyed
defense
counsel
defendant's
in Chicago.
desire to
At defendant's
debriefing on
officials the
had written
In
the prosecutor
of
The
defense
her conversations
a request to be
kept up to date
with
"as to
for September 4.
the production of
material, see
___
18 U.S.C.
On
August 4, defense
3500;
on August
28, the
Jencks
court
On September 4,
prosecution delivered
to defendant a
trial, the
Investigation"
of her
being threatened,
but contained
no
being
pressed at
trial
for what,
if
anything, the
information given it
by defendant,
The name
Michael. She
of paper what
With what she
experience I
with what I
facts . . . .
* * *
I have -- we started with the information that I
received based on all the documents that we find, the
numbers, this and that on the -- on a person that has
been detained.
I keep a copy and start doing some
-8-
a result of
in a way to
another
Post trial.
__________
After
the "ongoing
trial, on
September 18,
defendant
by agent Rolon
had alluded
to in
Baez had made notes at the debriefing, which were then submitted,
revealing
report.
nothing
differing
in substance
from
the
August 25
stressed
limited, that
that
the
of
defendant
been misspelled,
a target since
1988.
The prosecutor
was
but he
prosecutor further
argued that this fact was made known to the defense before trial,
-9-
he referred
this
background
of
non-disclosure
of
not
only
Michael Mouma's
existence but of
four
years
as
targeted
drug
put to
one
trafficker,
we
In so doing, we
side
defendant's
for some
examine
the
stress that we
argument
that
the
How
and
credibility.
Michael
in
reported
be accurate, this is of
its
interest
In this
Aruba with
by
in
fact that
surname
would
And the
significance to the
strengthening
case the
defendant
defendant's story.
known
the
defendant's
there was
strikingly similar
have
given
some
indeed a
to
support
that
to
been
government's failure
information could
decide.
We
have
to disclose
be said
no
on his threats.
this credibility-strengthening
to be reversible
doubt,
however,
error, we
that
Whether the
the
need not
prosecutor's
the nonexistence
of
this
information
--
and
even the
opposite
of
what
the
to Michael in
skeptical terms.
He subsequently
[who]
was
indeed
implicitly questioned
her claim that
her
boyfriend."
Michael's existence
And
he
again
when commenting
upon
after she
reached Aruba and "was advised by this alleged Michael that there
was a threat
contradiction.
After
"One
then escalated to
challenging defendant's
Innuendo
threats against
credibility
the
by
about
prosecutor noted,
foreclosed
questions
information
about
for
the
provided by
objected.
confidentiality
government's
defendant, "I
She
reasons
argued that,
from
investigation
do not believe
asking
into
the
that the
truth."
In
something else
that he
-11-
was
pointing to
defendant to
unlikelihood that
Chicago with no
the
round trip
"this
guy" would
ticket or
to be returned
send
information
to him.
The
strain the
quarter
million
instructions concerning
dollars
how much
worth
of
heroin
with
to bring
no
back.
Not being content with this thrust, the prosecution added a final
sally
in rebuttal by
children could
not have been in trouble or she would have reacted sooner: "[s]he
didn't want
name is.
Most
to stop Michael
or whatever his
legitimate argument.
or whomever his --
when the
prosecution had
unearthed
evidence that
he
we find
kind of
double-acting
prosecutorial error:
U.S. 83 (1963),
150 (1972),
should
be
in United States
_____________
Cir. 1993),
the plausibility of
other
evidence
improper
for a
lack
prosecutor
F.2d 681,
to urge the
but
reliance
As we
683 (1st
jury to evaluate
defense in
thereof),"
to imply
defense, and
to the contrary.
v. Smith, 982
_____
the justification
(and the
the
light of
"it is
the
plainly
on knowledge
or
-12-
imply reliance
untrue, or
on a
fact that
knows to
be
(1st Cir.
with
respect
to her
the defendant --
transporting
the
drugs and
concerned, everything
depended
on defendant's
credibility.
that no such
would have
Conversely,
corroborated by
of
the other
tilt
is difficult to accept
painstaking
to
strongly
in favor
of
the
It
tests
inform
defendant
were
not
Even if the
intentional,
the
-13-
carelessness was
just as harmful.
most
critical factor
in
defendant's tale
of
coercion --
the
skepticism.
And
there was
no
question
about any
in ignorance
is regrettable
that a
case in
many respects
well and
-14-