United States v. Amaya, No. 12-3134 (8th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseThe government appealed the district court's grant of defendant's motion for a new trial after he was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to launder money. The district court found that it committed two specific plain errors: (1) it determined that the verdict form for defendant was plainly erroneous because it was obvious that the form should have contained a place for the jury to indicate its verdict but that place was missing on the form, and (2) it substituted polling of the jury for the rendering of a verdict on a properly composed verdict form after private deliberations. The court concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion in determining that the verdict form error and the substitution of a polling procedure for a return of the verdict constituted plain error. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Criminal case - Criminal law. The district court did not err in granting defendant's motion for a new trial based on its determination that a verdict form error (lack of a box for the jury to check guilty or not guilty with respect to a money laundering count) and the substitution of a polling procedure for a return of the verdict constituted plain error. Judge Beam, dissenting
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