Tax evasion — jury instructions

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//July 6, 2012//

Listen to this article

United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Criminal

Tax evasion — jury instructions

Where the defendant failed to file taxes for twenty years, the district court properly denied a request for a supplemental jury instruction on negligence.

“Collins’s jury was properly instructed on the element of willfulness; the two pattern instructions necessarily—if implicitly—excluded a conviction based on negligent failure to file. Collins’s proposed supplemental instruction regarding negligence was redundant and therefore unnecessary. It was also wholly unsupported by the evidence in this case. Collins’s persistent failure to file federal and state tax returns—spanning nearly 20 years—cannot plausibly be attributed to mere ‘negligence.’”

Affirmed.

11-1954 U.S. v. Collins

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Stiehl, J., Sykes, J.

Select Region or Brand

Upcoming Event