United States v. Mageno

Defendant was convicted of knowingly joining and participating in a drug conspiracy because she translated telephone calls for her godson, a leader of a methamphetamine conspiracy. The court held that when a government representative concedes that there was a substantial error in the trial court proceedings involving prosecutorial misconduct, and the court concluded that the plain error standards laid out in United States v. Olano are otherwise met, the court may consider the error and, if otherwise appropriate, reverse the conviction. In this case, the court concluded that the Olano factors have been met and the court found it reasonably probable that defendant was convicted based on the prosecutors' false account of the grandson's testimony. Because the error was plain, the court reversed and remanded. View "United States v. Mageno" on Justia Law