United States v. Emerson Petion

[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT FILED
________________________ U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
July 21, 2006
No. 05-10930 THOMAS K. KAHN
Non-Argument Calendar CLERK
________________________
D. C. Docket No. 03-20910-CR-MGC
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
EMERSON PETION,
a.k.a Nasser Ghelichkhani,
a.k.a. Roberto Saillant,
a.k.a Donald Stirrup,
a.k.a. Avdat Beaulaire,
Defendant-Appellant.
________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Florida
_________________________
(July 21, 2006)
Before TJOFLAT, BLACK and BARKETT, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
A Southern District of Florida grand jury indicted appellant, an alien, on
three counts of falsely representing himself to be a citizen of the United States, in
violation of 18 U.S.C. § 911. He pled not guilty to all counts and stood trial. The
jury convicted him as charged, and the district court sentenced him to three
concurrent prison terms of 24 months. He now appeals his convictions, contending
that the evidence was insufficient to make out the § 911 offenses because the
Government failed to offer the necessary corroboration of his admissions to being
an alien, in that it did not (1) introduce independent evidence of the corpus delicti,
or (2) introduce independent evidence supporting the trustworthiness of the
admissions.
Our predecessor court held that a confession or an admission, standing
alone, is insufficient to sustain a conviction. See Wyatt v. United States, 263 F.2d
304, 308 (5th Cir. 1959). In other words, in addition to the admission of guilt, the
government must also introduce substantial independent evidence that would tend
to establish the trustworthiness of the admission, making it reliable and thus
corroborating it. Opper v. United States, 348 U.S. 84, 93, 75 S.Ct. 158, 164, 99
L.Ed. 101 (1954).
Here, the Government presented such independent evidence, to-wit: (1)
appellant’s previous criminal conviction for impersonating an American citizen,
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(2) statements he made on his application for asylum and during his deportation
proceeding, admitting his Bahamian nationality, and (3) an order removing him to
the Bahamas. Given this, in addition to the other evidence before the jury
including his admissions, we are satisfied that a reasonable jury could find that
appellant was not a U.S. citizen.
AFFIRMED.
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