Court Error – Jury Instructions

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Carlos Maez; et al.

Case No.: 19-1287; 19-1768; 19-2049

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and KANNE and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Court Error – Jury Instructions

In separate cases, juries found appellants Carlos Maez, Matthew Jones, and Cameron Battiste guilty of violating 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), which prohibits convicted felons and several other classes of people from possessing firearms or ammunition. In their appeals, the three defendants raise overlapping issues relying on Rehaif v. United States, 139 S. Ct. 2191 (2019), to challenge their convictions in trials held before Rehaif was decided. Before Rehaif, the federal courts of appeals had all held that § 922(g) required the government to prove a defendant knowingly possessed a firearm or ammunition, but not that the defendant knew he or she be‐ longed to one of the prohibited classes. United States v. Williams, 946 F.3d 968, 970 (7th Cir. 2020). In Rehaif, the Supreme Court reached a different conclusion, holding that the statute requires the government to “show that the defendant knew he possessed a firearm and also that he knew he had the relevant status when he possessed it.” 139 S. Ct. at 2194.

Courts across the nation are grappling with how Rehaif affects cases pending on direct appeal when it came down. This court has already affirmed several pre‐Rehaif convictions based on guilty pleas, but this is our first precedential decision concerning convictions upon jury verdicts. See United States v. Ballard, 950 F.3d 434, 436 n.1 (7th Cir. 2020); United States v. Dowthard, 948 F.3d 814, 818 (7th Cir. 2020); Williams, 946 F.3d at 975. The three appellants assert types of error that we have not yet addressed in light of Rehaif: a missing element in their indictments and jury instructions and—in Jones’s case—a denied motion for a judgment of acquittal. Applying plain‐error review, we conclude that the asserted errors do not require reversing any of the convictions. We vacate Jones’s sentence, however. As the government acknowledges, the district court made what is known as a Tapia error, imposing a longer prison term for purposes of rehabilitation through prison programs. See Tapia v. United States, 564 U.S. 319, 334 (2011).

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.