United States v. Alvirez, Jr., No. 11-10244 (9th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed his jury conviction and sentence for assault resulting in serious bodily injury on an Indian reservation. The court concluded that the district court abused its discretion when it determined that the Certificate of Indian Blood was a self-authenticating document under Fed. R. Evid. 902(2). Because the error was not harmless, the court reversed the conviction and remanded for further proceedings. The district court did not abuse its discretion when it denied the motion in limine, thus it did not deny defendant's right to present a defense. Finally, the district court's application of the sentencing enhancement for serious bodily injury was not clearly erroneous.
Court Description: Criminal Law. Reversing a conviction for assault resulting in serious bodily injury on an Indian reservation in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1153 and 113(a)(6), the panel held that the district court abused its discretion when it admitted an unauthenticated Certificate of Indian Blood issued by the Colorado River Indian Tribes as evidence that the defendant has tribal or federal government recognition as an Indian. The panel wrote that because Indian tribes are not listed among the entities that may produce self-authenticating documents, the district court abused its discretion in admitting the Certificate pursuant to Fed. R. Evid. 902(1) as a self-authenticating document. The panel also held that the district court did not deny the defendant his right to present a defense by denying his motion in limine to exclude references to polygraph evidence, and did not commit plain error by applying a sentence enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2A2.2 for infliction of a permanent or life- threatening bodily injury.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on April 15, 2013.
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