United States v. Angel Pacheco-Lovio

A jury found Pacheco-Lovio guilty of reentering the United States after having been arrested and deported in 1957, a violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326 . The court suspended imposition of sentence and placed him on probation for three years. We affirm.

Appellant sought to prove that he had been erroneously deported in 1957 because he was a native born citizen. The government introduced evidence that appellant had informed immigration officers in 1957 and 1962 that he had been born in Mexico and was a Mexican citizen, In addition the government introduced a copy of a birth certificate filed in the civil registry at Santa Ana,, Sonora, Mexico, which stated that Pacheco-Lovio had been born there on October 9, 1939. Appellant contends that this document should not have been admitted in evidence because it was not authenticated in compliance with Rule 44(a) (2), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, made applicable to criminal proceedings by Rule 27, Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.

Rule 44(a) (2) allows a foreign official record to be evidenced by a copy “attested by a person authorized to make the attestation, and accompanied by a final certification . . . ” by any of several officials…