United States v. Arnold, No. 15-3697 (8th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseDefendant was convicted of conspiracy to commit bank robberies and three counts of aiding and abetting the robbery of those banks. The court concluded that the district court properly denied defendant's motion to suppress where the officers' employment of a roadblock was reasonable because the officers had reliable information that the bank robber was among the two cars that were stopped and the roadblock significantly advanced the public interest. The court rejected defendant's Batson v. Kentucky challenges and concluded that defendant failed to show pretext for race discrimination. Finally, the court concluded that defendant's sentence of 210 months in prison was substantively reasonable where there are legitimate distinctions to support defendant's sentence. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Ketchmark, Author, with Smith and Gruender, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Criminal law and sentencing. Roadblock was reasonable because the police had reliable information that the driver of the car had committed two armed bank robberies and was likely fleeing from the second robbery, and the roadblock advanced a significant public interest which outweighed defendant's individual Fourth Amendment interests; Batson challenges were properly rejected as the government advanced non-discriminatory grounds for its strikes and defendant failed to show the grounds were pretexts for race discrimination; sentence was not substantively unreasonable. [ August 30, 2016
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