United States Ninth Circuit

Defendant's conviction for bringing in illegal aliens without presentation in violation of 8 U.S.C. section 1324(a)(2)(B)(iii), is reversed and remanded where: 1) the government undermined defendant's opportunity to present a complete defense by deporting a witness it knew could give exculpatory evidence; 2) the defendant has satisfied the two-part test used to evaluate whether the government's deportation of an alien witness amounts to a constitutional violation, as he has shown that the government acted in bad faith and that the deportation of the witness prejudiced his case; and 3) because a jury could have been swayed by the deported alien's eyewitness account, the constitutional errors were not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/14/2012
• Published 09/14/2012

Judges

• Kozinski

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel