In US v. Allen, No. 09-8008, the Tenth Circuit affirmed defendant's drug conspiracy conviction and sentence, holding that 1) defendant's appellate brief failed to support her Speedy Trial Act with a legal argument, and failed to explain her position on the facts and posture of the case; 2) in view of the trial judge's careful instructions to the jury and the fact that a prejudicial photo array only appeared on the first two days of a two-week long trial, any error was harmless; 3) all statements of witnesses were provided, as the Jencks Act required, following their testimony on direct examination at the latest; statements of a number of witnesses had been provided well before that deadline; and 4) any error in refusing to give an instruction requiring specific unanimity was clearly harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
As the court wrote: "Defendant-appellant Karen Allen was convicted by a jury of two counts related to dealing in methamphetamine. Ms. Allen was sentenced to 121 months' imprisonment on Count One and 48 months' imprisonment on Count 22, to be served concurrently. She was also sentenced to five years on supervised release and was ordered to pay a special assessment of $200.00. She now brings this direct appeal from the convictions and the resulting sentence. Our jurisdiction is granted by 28 U.S.C. § 1291."
Related Resources
- Full Text of US v. Allen, No. 09-8008
- PDF Version of US v. Allen, No. 09-8008
