United States Tenth Circuit

In a criminal case involving a mentally-ill inmate with a propensity for making grandiose threats, his conviction and 240-month sentence for threatening to harm the President of the United States, knowingly and willfully making a materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent statement to a United States Marshal, and mailing threatening communications are affirmed over claims that: 1) the court trial violated his right to compulsory process when, the day of trial, it reversed a prior ruling and allowed the introduction of evidence about defendant's intent without granting a continuance; 2) jury instructions impermissibly focused on his intent; 3) the reasons for the above-guidelines sentence were not adequately explained and the sentence was procedurally unreasonable; and 4) the sentence was substantively unreasonable.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/18/2008
• Published 09/18/2008

Judges

• McCONNELL, Circuit Judge., Before BRISCOE, McKAY and McCONNELL, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Julia C. Summers, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Oklahoma City, OK, for Defendant-Appellant, in No. 07-6013 & 07-6079., Joseph L. Wells, Oklahoma City, OK, for Defendant-Appellant, in No. 07-6081., James F. Robinson, Assistant U.S. Attorney (John C. Richter, United States Attorney, with him on the briefs), Oklahoma City, OK, for Plaintiff-Appellee.