Avoiding Not-So-Harmless Errors: The Appropriate Standards for Appellate Review of Willful-Blindness Jury Instructions

• Author: Justin C. From
• Position: J.D. Candidate, The University of Iowa College of Law, 2012
• Pages: 275-301

275

Avoiding Not-So-Harmless Errors: The

Appropriate Standards for Appellate

Review of Willful-Blindness Jury

Instructions

Justin C. From

ABSTRACT: From fairly inconspicuous beginnings, the willful-blindness

doctrine has proliferated throughout federal cour ts. Federal prosecutors

currently request willful-blindness jury instructions even when the evidence

does not warrant their use, and trial judges frequently grant these requests

over defense objections that inappropriate willful-blindness instructions

confuse jurors and relieve prosecutors of their burden of proof with respect to

the defendant’s mental state. One of the primary reasons federal courts

misuse willful-blindness instructions is that the circuits are split over the

appropriate guidelines for the appellate review of willful-blindness

instructions. To curb misuse of willful-blindness instructions, appellate

courts should use the abuse-of-discretion standard to review a trial court’s

decision to give a willful-blindness instruction, use the de novo standard to

review the accuracy of the wording of a willful-blindness instruction, and

delineate instances where the inappropriate use of willful-blindness

instructions is not harmless error, especially in contexts such as white-collar

criminal prosecutions.

I.INTRODUCTION: THE MISUSE OF WILLFUL-BLINDNESS

INSTRUCTIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF WHITE-COLLAR CRIMINAL

PROSECUTIONS ....................................................................................... 277

II.THE DEVELOPMENT AND CRITICISMS OF WILLFUL-BLINDNESS

INSTRUCTIONS ........................................................................................ 281

 J.D. Candidate, The University of Iowa College of Law, 2012; B.A., Central College,

2006. I would like to thank my writing professors at Central College and The University of Iowa

College of Law for their excellent instruction; the attorn eys at Belin McCormick, P.C. for

providing me with the opportunity to work on a project that exposed me to this topic; the

editors and writers of Volumes 96 and 97 of the Iowa Law Review, es pecially Walter Gindin and

Christopher Wendell, for all of their work and feedback on this Note; and my wife, Tara, and

my family for their support.

276 IOWA LAW REVIEW [Vol. 97:275

III.THE CURRENT STATE OF CONFUSION SURROUNDING THE

APPROPRIATE STANDARDS FOR APPELLATE REVIEW OF WILLFUL-

BLINDNESS INSTRUCTIONS ...................................................................... 286

A.THE CIRCUIT SPLIT OVER THE APPROPRIATE STANDARDS OF REVIEW

FOR WILLFUL-BLINDNESS JURY INSTRUCTIONS ..................................... 287

1.The Ninth and Tenth Circuits’ Standards............................. 287

2.The Fourth Circuit’s Standard ............................................... 290

3.The Second and Eleventh Circuits’ Standards ..................... 291

B.THE CIRCUIT SPLIT OVER THE STANDARDS FOR HARMLESS-ERROR

REVIEW OF WILLFUL-BLINDNESS INSTRUCTIONS .................................. 291

1.The Eleventh Circuit’s Harmless-Per-Se Standard for

Properly Worded Willful-Blindness Instructions .................. 292

2.The Fifth, Eighth, and Ninth Circuits’ Standard for

Reversing Willful-Blindness Instructions ............................... 294

3.Harmless-Error Review of Willful-Blindness Instructions

in the Context of White-Collar Criminal Prosecutions ........ 295

IV.THE APPROPRIATE STANDARDS FOR THE APPELLATE REVIEW OF

WILLFUL-BLINDNESS INSTRUCTIONS ...................................................... 297

A.THE APPROPRIATE STANDARDS OF REVIEW FOR WILLFUL-BLINDNESS

INSTRUCTIONS .................................................................................. 297

B.THE APPROPRIATE STANDARDS FOR HARMLESS-ERROR REVIEW OF

WILLFUL-BLINDNESS INSTRUCTIONS ................................................... 299

V.CONCLUSION .......................................................................................... 301