United States v. Davis, No. 13-12436 (11th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseA jury convicted the defendant Jerry Thomas Davis of possessing an unregistered short-barreled shotgun, and he appealed. This case presented three issues for the Eleventh Circuit's review: (1) does Federal Rule of Evidence 610, which excludes evidence of a witness’s “religious beliefs or opinions . . . to attack or support the witness’s credibility,” bar evidence that a witness’s job is city and police-department chaplain, even when neither side argues that this affected credibility?; (2) must a court give a special jury instruction on the credibility of a law enforcement officer and the defendant’s right to attack an officer’s credibility?; and (3) may a court that has already given one modified Allen charge tell a deadlocked jury to keep deliberating (with a reasonable suggestion for how to do it) while also telling the jurors they will be released if they are unable to agree within a short additional period of deliberations? Finding no abuse of discretion in any of the issues raised on appeal, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed defendant’s conviction.
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