United States Eleventh Circuit

Defendant's convictions and sentence for committing numerous acts of torture and other atrocities in Liberia between 1999 and 2003, during the presidency of his father, Charles Taylor, are affirmed where: 1) the United States validly adopted the Convention Against Torture pursuant to the President's Article II treaty-making authority, and it was well within Congress's power under the Necessary and Proper Clause to criminalize both torture, as defined by the Torture Act, and conspiracy to commit torture; 2) both the Torture Act and the firearm statute apply to extraterritorial conduct; and 3) it was the totality of the circumstances, not simply the length of time that passed between the event and the statement, that determines whether a hearsay statement was an excited utterance.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/16/2010
• Published 07/16/2010

Judges

• Stanley Marcus

Court

• United States Eleventh Circuit

Counsel