United States Ninth Circuit

In a criminal case involving an al Qaeda-trained defendant and the plot to detonate explosives at LAX in the days before the new Millenium, one of defendant's convictions, for carrying an explosive during the commission of a felony, is reversed where: 1) the statute of conviction requires a relationship between the underlying crime and the act of carrying an explosive; 2) the jury was not instructed on such an element; and 3) the government did not offer evidence that defendant's explosives were used to facilitate his false customs declaration.

Appellate Information

• Argued 11/13/2006
• Decided 01/16/2007
• Published 01/16/2007

Judges

• RYMER, Circuit Judge:, Before: ALARCÓN, RYMER, and BERZON, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• John McKay, United States Attorney, Seattle, WA, for the plaintiff-appellant-cross-appellee., Thomas W. Hillier, II, Federal Public Defender, and Michael Filipovic, First Assistant Federal Public Defender, Seattle, WA, for the defendant-appellee-cross-appellant.