Morris

MEMORANDUM **

Calvin Morris challenges the sufficiency of the evidence for his conviction on Federal drug and racketeering charges. He also argues that the district court improperly admitted evidence of a prior drug arrest and that Federal agents engaged in sentencing entrapment by selling cocaine to his co-conspirator at an artificially low price.

Morris argues that the evidence was insufficient because he gave an innocent explanation of why he flew to Arizona and handled the duffel bag containing money for the cocaine deal. But the fact that Morris’s actions could be innocently explained does not mean that the evidence was insufficient to find him guilty. In evaluating the sufficiency of the evidence, “the relevant inquiry is not whether the evidence excludes every hypothesis except guilt.” United States v. Mares, 940 F.2d 455, 458 (9th Cir.1991). Rather, the relevant inquiry is “whether the jury could reasonably arrive at its verdict.” Id. Moreover, acts which otherwise appear innocent, when viewed in context, may support an inference of guilt. United States v. Batimana, 623 F.2d 1366, 1368 (9th Cir.1980).

The jury could reasonably have inferred his guilt. Morris’s…