United States v. Cordova, No. 11-3034 (D.C. Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseDefendants Cordova, Gutierrez, and Sorto appealed their convictions for conspiracy, violent crimes in aid of racketeering, murder, assault, and federal and District of Columbia weapons offenses. The court rejected defendants' argument that the court-imposed restrictions limiting their personal access to certain discovery documents deprived them of their Sixth Amendment rights to effective representation and to assist in their defense because defendants suffered no plausible prejudice. The court concluded that the trial judge did not abuse its discretion in declining to recuse himself in response to an allegedly threatening letter; the district court did not plainly err by holding its preliminary jury instruction conference outside the presence of defendants and plaintiffs have failed to show prejudice in support of their claim that the off-the-record proceeding deprived them of effective representation; and defendants are not entitled to a new trial where the court found that the district court's dismissal of defendants' second appointed attorneys was neither contrary to the statute nor an abuse of discretion. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.