Criminal Procedure – verdicts — motions to set aside

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Criminal

Criminal Procedure – verdicts — motions to set aside

A jury verdict of guilt must be set aside if, even though the verdict is not “wholly irrational,” the evidence would not have justified a reasonable juror in finding guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

“Although the evidence was adequate to convict Olivella of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, we don’t agree with the statement in the government’s brief that ‘the jury’s verdict must stand unless Olivella can show that the jury’s “take on the evidence was wholly irrational,”’ quoting United States v. Hoogenboom, 209 F.3d 665, 669 (7th Cir. 2000), and adding that showing that a jury verdict was ‘wholly irrational’ is a ‘nearly insurmountable hurdle.’ We can’t criticize lawyers for quoting from opinions of this court that have not been overruled, but to say that a jury verdict can be set aside only if ‘wholly irrational’ (which would indeed be a ‘nearly insurmountable’ proposition to establish) is the kind of hyperbole that sometimes creeps into opinions (and not just Hoogenboom—see, e.g., United States v. Teague, 956 F.2d 1427, 1433 (7th Cir. 1992)), and it should not be considered legal doctrine. A jury verdict of guilt can be set aside—must be set aside—if, even though the verdict is not ‘wholly irrational,’ the evidence would not have justified a reasonable juror in finding guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 317-19 (1979); United States v. Mojica, 185 F.3d 780, 789 (7th Cir. 1999); United States v. Rahman, 34 F.3d 1331, 1337 (7th Cir. 1994); United States v. DeCorte, 851 F.2d 948, 952 and n. 2 (7th Cir. 1988); United States v. Brown, 776 F.2d 397, 402 (2d Cir. 1985) (Friendly, J.). This is a heavy burden, but it is not ‘nearly insurmountable.’ That would imply that we rubber stamp guilty verdicts.”

Affirmed.

10-3698 & 11-2707 U.S. v. Curescu

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Lefkow, J., Posner, J.