United States v. Hugo Rincon

Opinion by Judge T.G. NELSON.

I

OVERVIEW

Hugo Rincon (Rincon) was convicted on two counts of unarmed bank robbery. On Rincon’s first appeal to this court, he contended that the district court erred in refusing to admit expert testimony regarding the reliability of eyewitness identification. We affirmed the district court’s exclusion of that expert testimony in United States v. Rincon (Rincon I), 984 F.2d 1003 (9th Cir.1993). After the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. -, 113 S.Ct. 2786 , 125 L.Ed.2d 469 (1993), regarding the admissibility of expert testimony, the Court remanded this case and asked us to reexamine that issue in light of Daubert . We remanded to the district court for reconsideration. The district court upheld its earlier decision to exclude the expert testimony. We affirm.

II

BACKGROUND

Rincon was indicted on two counts of unarmed bank robbery. Count one charged Rincon with the April 21, 1988 robbery of California Federal Savings and Loan. Count two charged him with the April 27, 1988 robbery of Culver National Bank. The district court denied Rincon’s pretrial motion in limine in which he sought to…