Saturday, November 9, 2013

United States v. Walters case brief

United States v. Walters case brief summary
997 F.2d 1219 (1993)


CASE SYNOPSIS
Defendant appealed his conviction in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois for mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C.S. § 1341.

CASE FACTS
After it was discovered that defendant had entered into contracts with college athletes under which they agreed to use him as their agent in negotiating professional contracts and that he had given them money and cars during college, he was charged with mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C.S. § 1341 and several other offenses. He ultimately entered an Alford plea to mail fraud, and the other charges were dismissed.

DISCUSSION
  • On appeal, defendant claimed that there was insufficient evidence to support the conviction. 
  • The crux of his argument was that he had not used the mails to obtain money or property fraudulently and that he had derived no benefit at the expense of the colleges. 
  • In reversing the conviction, the court found that an essential element of mail fraud was that the use of the mails was foreseeable and that, although defendant knew that the athletes were required to submit eligibility forms to the colleges, there was no proof that these forms had been mailed to the colleges. 
  • It found that another essential element of mail fraud was that the perpetrator obtain property from the victim and that the evidence failed to show that defendant received any property from the colleges.

CONCLUSION
The court reversed defendant's conviction for mail fraud because the prosecution failed to show that use of the mails was foreseeable to defendant's scheme and also failed to show that defendant had derived any property from the victim of the crime. Because both elements were essential to the crime of mail fraud, the evidence was insufficient to support the conviction.


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