US v. Hatfield, No. 09-1705

District court's conviction and imposition of life sentences on defendants for conspiracy to burglarize pharmacies and to distribute controlled substances, the use of which resulted in four deaths plus a serious bodily injury to a fifth user of the defendants' drugs, is reversed and remanded as, district court's jury instruction regarding the term "results from" was an error that was not harmless because the evidence regarding the cause of the serious injury of the one victim and the deaths of the others, though strong enough to justify a verdict of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, was not conclusive.   

Read US v. Hatfield, No. 09-1705

Appellate Information

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois

Decided January 14, 2010

Judges

Before:  Flaum and Posner, Circuit Judges, and Der-Yeghiayan

Opinion by Circuit Judge Posner