July 03rd, 2019

United States v. Jones

Dockets: 18-50086, 18-50088
Opinion Date: July 2, 2019
Judge: Stephen Andrew Higginson
Areas of Law: Criminal Law

Upon sua sponte panel rehearing, the Fifth Circuit withdrew its prior opinion and substituted the following opinion. The court vacated defendant's convictions for possessing and conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute methamphetamine, possessing a firearm as a convicted felon, and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. The court held that defendant's rights under the Confrontation Clause were violated when a law enforcement officer testified that he knew defendant had received a large amount of methamphetamine because of what the officer was told by a confidential informant. In this case, the error was not invited by the defense and was not harmless. The court also vacated the related revocation of defendant's supervised release and remanded for further proceedings.

Read Opinion