Case Summaries: Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals - November, 2019

This post summarizes published decisions from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that may be of interest to state criminal practitioners from November, 2019. (1) Motion in limine to prohibit the use of the word “robbery” by government witnesses properly denied; (2) No error to deny mistrial following witness’s emotional outburst; (3) Pretrial publicity did not rise to the level of creating a presumption of prejudice and defendant failed to show actual prejudice; (4) Failure to disclose pending investigation of government witness was not a Brady violation under the facts U.S v. Taylor, 942 F.3d 205 (Nov. 5, 2019). This case involved racketeering, robbery, fraud, conspiracy, and other offenses committed by police officers in Baltimore, Maryland. In the course of official duties, members of the “Gun Trace Task Force” within the police department targeted drug dealers for robbery and stole money and property from them. The officers also fraudulently claimed overtime pay. Two officers went to trial and were convicted of RICO violations and Hobbs Act robbery. The defendants appealed. (1) The defendants argued the use of the word “robbery” by government witnesses during trial was prejudicial and violated the rules of evidence for lay and expert opinion. The government witnesses who used the term had pled guilty to robbery before trial. The use of the word here was not an opinion, but reflected the facts of those witnesses’ cases. Further, the district court gave repeated limiting instructions, warning the jury not to consider the guilt of the witnesses when determining [...]