United States v. Frances Oram Howard

This case is before us on interlocutory appeal after the district court denied the motion of Frances Oram Howard to dismiss her perjury indictment. Howard alleges that the district court erred in refusing to hold an evidentiary hearing to determine whether prosecutorial misconduct before the grand jury, including the alleged setting of a “perjury trap,” requires dismissal of the indictment. Because we conclude that we do not have jurisdiction to hear Howard’s interlocutory appeal, we do not reach the merits of Howard’s perjury trap claim.

I. BACKGROUND

In February 1986, Frances Oram Howard was subpoenaed as a witness before a federal grand jury in connection with an investigation of the 1982 escape from the Rocky Butte Jail in Portland, Oregon of Howard’s close friend, Stephen Kessler, and others. The grand jury was investigating whether people outside the jail assisted in the escape. The investigation focused on the origin of a small handgun that Kessler used to shoot and disable a guard during the escape.

After learning of Howard’s friendship with Kessler, the government arranged to monitor conversations between Howard and James Hampton, a government informant who had been…