United States v. Jordan Lamott

In 2013, Congress added the offense of assault by strangulation to the federal assault statute, 18 U.S.C. § 113 . The following year a jury convicted Jordan Lamott under this provision for nonfatally strangling his girlfriend. We must decide whether the jury was properly instructed to disregard Lamott’s voluntary intoxication, which requires us to determine whether § 113(a)(8) is a general or specific intent crime. We also must decide whether the court’s instruction to the jury on assault by strangulation violated Lamott’s due process rights. We hold that assault by strangulation under § 113(a)(8) is a general intent crime, and Lamott’s intoxication was therefore irrelevant. We find no plain error in the court’s instruction on the elements of the offense. Accordingly, we affirm Lamott’s conviction.

I.

Violence against Native American women in Indian Country has reached alarming rates in the past few decades. See United States v. Bryant, — U.S. -, 136 S.Ct. 1954, 1959 , 195 L.Ed.2d 317 (2016). Recent studies suggest that Native American women experience certain violent crimes at two and a half times the national average. Id. (citing Dept, of Justice, Attorney General’s…