Estate of Gentry E. McKinney by and Through Its Personal Representative, Virginia McKinney Virginia McKinney Personally v. United States

A decedent’s estate and widow petitioned the district court for a writ of error coram nobis. They sought an order vacating the decedent’s convictions, contending that they were obtained without proof as to an essential element. The district court denied the petition, concluding that the petitioners lacked standing because the right to coram nobis relief belongs only to the wrongfully convicted individual, and that even if they were found to have standing, they failed to meet the requirements for such relief. We affirm on the ground of lack of jurisdiction.

I

On September 21,1989, the decedent, Gentry McKinney, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to obstruct the Internal Revenue Service in the collection of currency transaction data and to evade the reporting requirements of 31 U.S.C. § 5313 (a), and sixty-one counts of structuring currency transactions to avoid those reporting requirements in violation of 31 U.S.C. §§ 5322 and 5324(3). McKinney’s convictions were based on transactions in which he deposited, in amounts under $10,000, approximately $1.5 million in five different banks and fifteen different accounts over a span of fifteen weeks in order to avoid the…