United States v. Jamah Briggs

MEMORANDUM

Jamah Briggs appeals his conviction for conspiracy to bring an undocumented alien into the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 871 and for transporting an undocumented alien within the United States in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324 (a)(l)(A)(ii). We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we reverse Briggs’s conviction, vacate his sentence, and remand.

The government concedes that the district court’s decision to admit into evidence deposition testimony by the alien whom Briggs was accused of smuggling, without first making the predicate finding that the witness was unavailable, violated the Confrontation Clause and the Federal Rules of Evidence. This error was not “harmless beyond a reasonable doubt,” United States v. Pena-Gutierrez, 222 F.3d 1080, 1089 (9th Cir.2000), because the deposition testimony was the most incriminating evidence of Briggs’s involvement in the alleged conspiracy and the only concrete evidence that the person who Briggs allegedly helped to smuggle was undocumented. Thus, “it is more likely than not that the error affected the verdict,” United States v. Marguet-Pillado, 560 F.3d 1078, 1086 (9th Cir.2009), warranting reversal of…