United States v. Earl Foster Boise

916 F.2d 497 31 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 904 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Earl Foster BOISE, Defendant-Appellant. No. 89-30071. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted Jan. 8, 1990. Decided Aug. 29, 1990. As Amended Sept. 27, 1990. Kenneth Lerner, Asst. Federal Defender, Portland, Or., for defendant-appellant. William W. Youngman, Asst. U.S. Atty., Portland, Or., for plaintiff-appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Oregon. Before WRIGHT, TANG and CANBY, Circuit Judges. EUGENE A. WRIGHT, Circuit Judge: 1 In April 1988 Quinton Boise, a six-week-old baby, died on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. Following an investigation, the government charged his father, Earl Boise, with second degree murder in violation of 18 U.S.C. Secs. 1111 , 1153. A jury found him guilty and the court sentenced him to 240 months of imprisonment. I. Sufficiency of the Evidence 2 Murder in the second degree is the "unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought." 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1111 (a). Boise argues that, because there was insufficient evidence of second degree murder, the district court erred when it denied his…

In April 1988 Quinton Boise, a six-week-old baby, died on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation. Following an investigation, the government charged his father, Earl Boise, with second degree murder in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1111 , 1153. A jury found him guilty and the court sentenced him to 240 months of imprisonment.

I. Sufficiency of the Evidence

Murder in the second degree is the “unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought.” 18 U.S.C. § 1111 (a). Boise argues that, because there was insufficient evidence of second degree murder, the district court erred when it denied his motion for judgment of acquittal under Fed.R. Crim.P. 29(c).

“[T]he critical inquiry on review of the sufficiency of the evidence to support a criminal conviction ... [is] whether the record evidence could reasonably support a finding of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.” Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 318 , 99 S.Ct. 2781, 2788-89 , 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979). Specifically, we ask whether “after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” Id. at 319 , 99…

dissenting:

Someone repeatedly and severely abused Quinton Boise. Sometime during the few days before Quinton died, the same person fractured Quinton’s skull. Twenty-four to forty-eight hours before he died, Quinton hemorrhaged subdurally — that is, bled within his skull. He hemorrhaged again in the few hours before he died. For those last few hours, Earl Boise was Quinton’s sole adult caretaker. From that, the prosecution sought to prove, not that Boise was criminally negligent, but that he struck the fatal blows. The jury found him guilty.

The majority concedes that the evidence is entirely circumstantial that Boise killed Quinton. Indeed, other than the circumstantial evidence that relates to Quinton’s final hemorrhage, there is no evidence that Boise ever harmed Quinton. But the majority finds the testimony of prosecution experts Doctors Lewman, Creelman, and Nakamura sufficient evidence for a jury to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that he struck the fatal blows. The majority believes these doctors testified “that if the boy had received the fatal head injury earlier [than his last few hours], he would have shown symptoms,” and “that in their medical opinion the blows…