United States Fourth Circuit

In a prosecution for willfully and knowingly making a false statement on a passport application, the conviction is affirmed, where: 1) the district court did not err in concluding that the Bronston literal truth defense did not entitle the defendant to judgment as a matter of law; 2) the word "father" is not so fundamentally ambiguous that the defendant's claim to be the father of his stepchildren could not provide the basis for a false statement conviction; 3) the evidence was sufficient to find that the defendant understood the question whether he was the father and answered it falsely; and 4) the district court did not err in refusing to give a proposed jury instruction regarding the lack of a statutory definition of the word "father."

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/09/2012
• Published 02/09/2012

Judges

• Diana Gribbon Motz

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Helen Eckert Phillips, Justin Gelfand