United States v. Wright, No. 16-3292 (8th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CaseThe Eighth Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction of one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin, cocaine base, and fentanyl, and two counts of distributing fentanyl. The court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting evidence of defendant's prior drug-dealing conviction; the district court did not violate the Confrontation Clause by limiting defendant's cross-examination of a government witness about his potential life sentence; and the undisclosed impeachment evidence related to four customer witnesses did not violate Brady v. Maryland where there was no likelihood that the information would have resulted in a different verdict and evidence of defendant's guilt was overwhelming.
Court Description: Gruender, Author, with Wollman and Shepherd, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Criminal law. In this prosecution for conspiracy to distribute heroin, crack and fentanyl and two counts of distributing fentanyl, the district court did not err in determining that defendant's 2008 conviction for delivery of 40 grams of cocaine was admissible under Rule 404(b) on the issues of intent, knowledge and absence of mistake or accident; no error in limiting defendant's cross-examination of a government witness pertaining to his potential life sentence as admission of such evidence could have led the jury to the conclusion that defendant also faced a life sentence; undisclosed evidence concerning government witnesses' cooperation with law enforcement was not a Brady violation because the evidence was not material; there was no likelihood the information, if known and provided to defendant for impeachment, would have resulted in a different verdict; even without these witnesses' testimony, the evidence of defendant's guilt was overwhelming [ August 07, 2017
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