Criminal Procedure — self-representation

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Criminal

Criminal Procedure — self-representation — undue prejudice — new trials

“Eads now raises a litany of challenges to his convictions and sentence on appeal, but none have any merit. He claims that the district court abused its discretion in allowing him to represent himself at trial, but the court questioned him at length before allowing him to proceed pro se. And while we agree with Eads that the district court erred in not thoroughly explaining on the record why it admitted the evidence of child pornography, the images were not unfairly prejudicial and the additional evidence of his guilt was overwhelming. The jury was also presented with sufficient evidence of Eads’s attempts to corruptly persuade his wife to testify falsely, and so we will not overturn the jury’s guilty verdict on the witness tampering charge. Eads further claims that the district court should have granted him a new trial. But the district court held an evidentiary hearing on the matter and properly found no newly discovered evidence to support a new trial. Lastly, notwithstanding Eads’s protestations to the contrary, the district court carefully considered the factors under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) as they applied to Eads and his overall offense conduct before sentencing him. Therefore, we affirm the district court’s judgment in all respects.”

Affirmed.

12-2466 U.S. v. Eads

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Pratt, J., Williams, J.