In United States v. Graham, No. 22-11809 (Grant, Tjoflat, Ed Carnes) (Sept. 8, 2023), the Court affirmed the defendant’s conviction (and granted the government’s motion to publish this previously-unpublished opinion).
The defendant moved to dismiss the indictment because, pursuant to the Southern District of Georgia’s covid protocols in place during the summer of 2020, the grand jury met in three different courthouses and was connected by videoconference. The Eleventh Circuit held that, even if the grand jurors were required to be present in the same room (a question it did not decide), the defendant made no effort to show prejudice, which he was required to do.
The Court also held that the district court did not clearly err in finding that the affidavit in support of a wiretap adequately explained why alternative investigative procedures were insufficient.
