United States v. Darden, No. 11-3161 (8th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CaseFollowing a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of possessing with intent to distribute cocaine base, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and being an unlawful user of a controlled substance in possession of a firearm. The district court sentenced Defendant to 200 months imprisonment. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Defendant's conviction, holding (1) nothing in the record established that the conduct engaged in by the government during grand jury proceedings required dismissal of the indictment; (2) the district court did not err in admitting certain evidence; and (3) the prosecutor made improper comments during closing argument, but the trial record taken as a whole did not show that Defendant was entitled to reversal of his convictions.
Court Description: Criminal case - Criminal law. Claims of government misconduct before the grand jury rejected; evidence regarding a handgun and a gaming console became relevant after defendant's cross-examination of a police detective and was properly admitted; while prosecution's closing argument implying that an acquittal would require the jury to believe the police officers were lying was improper, under the applicable plain error standard, defendant failed to demonstrate a reasonable probability that the outcome of the trial would have been different absent the error. Judge Melloy, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
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