United States v. John Doe

Defendant-Appellant John Doe appeals his conviction, following a jury trial, of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, conspiracy to distribute cocaine, possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute, and possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute. On appeal, Doe raises a host of alleged errors which fall into four general categories: errors relating to Doe’s public authority defense, Sixth Amendment violations, discovery violations, and procedural errors at Doe’s sentencing.

Regarding the alleged public authority errors, we hold that the district court was correct in ruling that Dixon v. United States, 548 U.S. 1 , 126 S.Ct. 2437 , 165 L.Ed.2d 299 (2006), applies to Doe’s public authority defense. Thus, Doe had the burden of establishing the defense by a preponderance of the evidence, and it was not error for the district court to refuse to instruct the jury otherwise. While we find that the district court gave an incomplete and therefore erroneous jury instruction on public authority when it neglected to instruct the jury that Doe bore this burden, Doe never raised the issue before the district court, and the error does not rise to the level of…