United States First Circuit

Conviction of defendant for distributing crack cocaine and sentenced to 64-months' imprisonment, followed by four years' supervised release, with a special condition of substance abuse treatment counseling, are affirmed where: 1) district court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendant's motion for a mistrial as although prosecutorial misconduct occurred, there is no evidence that it prejudiced the outcome of defendant's trial; 2) defendant's claim that the prosecutor improperly vouched for the government's witness is rejected; 3) the probative value of defendant's prior drug transactions with the government witnesses, which demonstrated their prior familiarity with defendant, was not substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice; and 4) defendant's sentence was not unreasonable as the district court was well within its discretion to sentence defendant to 64 months' imprisonment.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/02/2010
• Published 09/02/2010

Judges

• THOMPSON

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Robert Herrick, Margaret D. McGaughey