In U.S. v. York, No. 04-12354 (Oct. 27, 2005), the Court affirmed a conviction and 1,620-month sentence on a defendant convicted of RICO conspiracy and other crimes arising out of the interstate transport of minors with the intent to engage in unlawful sexual activity.
The Court rejected the argument that the indictment was invalid because the Georgia grand jury which indicted him was infected with adverse pre-trial publicity. The Court noted that U.S. v. Waldon, 363 F.3d 1103 (11th Cir. 2003) held that the protections against publicity affecting a jury during trial did not apply to a grand jury. The Court explained that its distinction was based on the different functions of the two bodies, and the different procedural restrictions which apply. Further, York did not show that the publicity surrounding his case "substantially influenced" the decision to indict him.
The Court also rejected the argument that the sexual abuse charges should have been severed from the financial structuring charges. The Court "readily" concluded that York showed no "actual prejudice," and noted that the jury was specifically instructed to consider each count separately.
Finally, the Court found no Booker plain error in York’s sentence. The Court pointed out that that district court, while imposing the consecutive sentences which yielded the 1,620-month total, stated the sentence was "appropriate" in light of "the nature of the crimes, the victims involved, the length of the sentence, and the totality of the circumstances." These comments undercut any inference of plain error based on the district court’s misapprehension of its powers under the then-mandatory Guidelines.
Finally, the Court rejected an ex post facto challenge to the court’s reliance on a 2000 version of the Guidelines, noting that an "essentially identical" version of the specific cross-reference at issue was in effect in the earlier version of the Guidelines.
