Abuse of Discretion Newly Discovered Evidence.

Byline: Derek Hawkins

7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Michael Coscia

Case No.: 19-2010; 20-1032

Officials: EASTERBROOK, RIPPLE, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Abuse of Discretion Newly Discovered Evidence

A jury convicted Michael Coscia of six counts of commodities fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1348, and six counts of spoofing, in violation of 7 U.S.C. 6c(a)(5)(C) and 13(a)(2). On direct appeal, we affirmed his conviction. We now have before us the appeals of two proceedings that Mr. Coscia initiated after we resolved his direct appeal. The first is a motion for a new trial on the basis of new evidence in which he alleges (1) that data discovered after trial establishes that there were errors in the data presented to the jury and (2) that subsequent indictments against other traders for similar spoofing activities undercut the Government's characterization of Mr. Coscia as "unique" or a trading "outlier." The second proceeding is a motion to vacate his conviction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2255, in which Mr. Coscia claims that his trial counsel, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, provided ineffective assistance of counsel. Specifically, he alleges that Sullivan & Cromwell had an undisclosed conflict of interest with several of the Government's witnesses and that this conflict adversely affected counsel's performance. He also alleges that, even if there was no conflict of interest, his trial counsel nevertheless provided constitutionally deficient representation.

The district court denied both motions, and Mr. Coscia now appeals. He submits that the district court abused its discretion when it denied his new trial motion. In his view, the newly discovered evidence demonstrated that key evidence relied on by the...