United States First Circuit
US v. Rivera-Rivera, 05-2495, 05-2498
Defendants' convictions and sentences stemming from the armed robbery of a lottery ticket business in Puerto Rico are affirmed over claims that: 1) a key witness's in-court identification was tainted by unnecessarily suggestive pretrial encounters; 2) the government failed to meet its burden of proving that the robbery affected interstate commerce; and 3) there were multiple errors during sentencing, including that the district court improperly imposed a 25-year mandatory minimum based on facts not found by the jury beyond a reasonable doubt.
Appellate Information
- Decided 02/09/2009
- Published 02/09/2009
Judges
- HOWARD, Circuit Judge., Before LIPEZ, BALDOCK and HOWARD, Circuit Judges.
Court
- United States First Circuit
Counsel
- For Appellant:
- Linda Backiel for appellant Sanchez., Mauricio Hernández-Arroyo for appellant Rivera.
- For Appellees:
- Timothy R. Henwood, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez, United States Attorney, Nelson Pérez-Sosa, Assistant United States Attorney, and Germán A. Rieckehoff, Assistant United States Attorney, were on brief for appellee.