United States First Circuit

Defendant's convictions and sentence for distributing cocaine base are affirmed, where: 1) the district court did not abuse its discretion by having the alternates present in the courtroom with the jury; 2) the district court did not err by placing the alternates in the jury box during the audio playback; 3) defendant cannot establish prejudice resulting from the district court's decision to have the jury confer in the courtroom as to which portions of the video it wanted to replay; 4) the district court did not err by failing to instruct the jury that it could not draw a negative inference from the fact that law-enforcement officers possessed photographic images of defendant; and 5) defendant's sentence as a career criminal does not violate the Sixth Amendment prohibition against judicial fact finding.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/16/2014
• Published 07/16/2014

Judges

• McCAFFERTY

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel