00-2269, 00-2723 U.S. v. Bogan

Listen to this article

“In the factual situation before us, the evidence of the wine-making activity of Bogan and Calhoun serves to complete and answer a conceptual void in the history of the crime. To the lay juror, most likely unfamiliar with the manufacturing of prison intoxicants and the currency of the prison black market, it would seem less than reasonable and likely that the mere confiscation of a small quantity of sugar and a few postage stamps would serve to provoke a violent assault and reaction of the magnitude testified to at trial. Indeed, a pall of incredibility might be cast upon the government’s case if it claimed that two prisoners severely assaulted and beat a prison guard merely for confiscating such ordinary household items (sugar and stamps). It is only when the juror is informed of the panorama of events and past history of the entire picture of the production and sale of liquor in a prison setting that the violent attack after the confiscation of the sugar and stamps makes sense. In other words, the testimony of Degenhardt regarding Bogan’s and Calhoun’s wine-making activity completed the story of the crime charged and was ‘necessary to enable the jury to fully understand and make sense of’ their vicious attack upon Officer Degenhardt.”

Affirmed.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, Crabb, J., Coffey, J.