United States v. Saada case brief

United States v. Saada case brief summary
212 F.3d 210 (3d Cir. 2000)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Defendants appealed from an order of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, which convicted and sentenced defendants on insurance fraud related charges under 18 U.S.C.S. §§ 371, 1341, and 1343, and denied defendants' motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence.

CASE FACTS
Defendants appealed from a district court judgment which convicted and sentenced them under 18 U.S.C.S. §§ 371, 1341, and 1343. Defendants challenged the district court's denial of their motion for a new trial made on the basis of newly discovered evidence that a government witness, subsequent to defendants' convictions, advised a third party to give false testimony in a separate case, in return for a reduced sentence.

DISCUSSION

• The court of appeals affirmed the district court's judgment concluding that the new evidence was unlikely to produce an acquittal. 
• The court noted the impeachment evidence presented at trial detailing the witness' propensity for deceitful acts and his incentive for testifying as a government witness, and concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion in ruling that the new evidence was merely cumulative. 
• Accordingly, defendants' convictions and sentences were affirmed.

CONCLUSION
Judgment affirmed. Denial of defendants' motion for a new trial was proper because the new trial was unlikely to produce an acquittal and the district court did not abuse it's discretion in ruling that the new evidence was merely cumulative.


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