United States v. Zarauskas, No. 15-1108 (1st Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseAfter a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of smuggling narwhal tusks into the United States, conspiracy to illegally import narwhal tusks into the United States, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. On appeal, Defendant argued that the district court erred (1) by allowing, then failing to cure, a series of comments and questions by the prosecutor, which Defendant alleged unconstitutionally drew the jury’s attention to his decision not to testify; and (2) in admitting records of vehicular border crossings between the United States and Canada, which the government used to establish that the illegally imported tusks had originated in Canada. The First Circuit affirmed, holding (1) the government’s comments and questions either constituted harmless error or did not result in plain error; and (2) the district court properly admitted the vehicular border crossings reports pursuant to Fed. R. Evid. 803(8) as admissible, non-adversarial public records.
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