United States v. Jenkins, No. 19-610 (2d Cir. 2022)
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Three Defendants (“Defendant 1” “Defendant 2” and “Defendant 3” collectively “Defendants”) were convicted of firearms, narcotics, and racketeering offenses following a jury trial at which Defendant 1 and Defendant 2 testified in their own defense. In a concurrently filed summary order, the court considered and reject nearly all of Defendants’ arguments except with respect to vacatur of Defendant 1 and Defendant 2’s convictions on Count 2 of the Superseding Indictment. In this opinion, the Second Circuit held that, contrary to Defendant 1 and Defendant 2’s arguments, the district court did not err in instructing the jury on the principles to use in evaluating the testimony of interested witnesses, including Defendants 1 and 2. The district court’s instruction did not assume the testifying Defendants’ guilt or otherwise undermine the presumption of innocence.
The court explained at no point did the court assume Defendants’ guilt by suggesting, directly or indirectly, that Defendants had a motive to testify falsely. The instructions here were guilt-neutral, not guilt-assuming. The district court even-handedly instructed the jury to consider Defendants testimony” just as you would the testimony of any witness with an interest in the outcome of this case.” The court did not equate biased or likely to be biased with a motive to testify falsely. Accordingly, the court found that the district court did not commit error (much less plain error) in instructing the jury on the principles to use in evaluating Defendants’ testimony.
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