Background

• Colon was convicted of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number following a three-day jury trial.
• A significant portion of the government's case rested on incriminating statements Colon made to police; the defense argued those statements were unreliable and involuntary.
• 18 U.S.C. § 3501(a) requires a court, after finding voluntariness, to instruct the jury to weigh a confession according to all the circumstances.
• Before trial, Colon proposed an instruction emphasizing that unrecorded statements and their circumstances should be weighed by the jury.
• The district court read and gave a draft instruction stating that witnesses and exhibits should be weighed for credibility and that recorded conversations would be available for jurors to review.
• The jury found Colon not guilty on one count and guilty on several others, and he was sentenced to 96 months; on appeal, Colon argued plain error for not following § 3501(a) text precisely.

Issues

Key Cases Cited

• United States v. Combs, 555 F.3d 60 (1st Cir. 2009) (preservation of jury-instruction challenge; plain-error review)
• United States v. Gonzalez, 570 F.3d 16 (1st Cir. 2009) (instructional error review; not isolated to language)
• United States v. Prigmore, 243 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 2001) (district court discretion in formulating instructions)
• United States v. Adams, 484 F.2d 357 (7th Cir. 1973) (no error to instruct credibility/weight; right to weigh evidence)
• United States v. Williams, 484 F.2d 176 (8th Cir. 1973) (no specific wording required for § 3501(a) instruction)
• United States v. Santos, 131 F.3d 16 (1st Cir. 1997) (plain-error review for unobjected errors)
• United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725 (1993) (test for plain-error reversal of unpreserved errors)
• Dickerson v. United States, 530 U.S. 428 (2000) (Miranda history and continuing relevance of warnings)