Musacchio v. United States
Musacchio v. United States
Opinion
In this case, the Government failed to object to a jury instruction that erroneously added an element that it had to prove,
*713
and petitioner failed to press a statute-of-limitations defense until his appeal. We address two questions arising from the parties' failures to raise timely challenges. We first consider how a court should assess a challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence in a criminal case when a jury instruction adds an element to the charged crime and the Government fails to object. We conclude that the sufficiency of the evidence should be assessed against the elements of the charged crime. We next consider whether the statute-of-limitations defense contained in
I
Petitioner Michael Musacchio served as president of a logistics company, Exel Transportation Services (ETS), until his resignation in 2004. In 2005, he formed a rival company, Total Transportation Services (TTS). Musacchio was soon joined there by Roy Brown, who previously headed ETS's information-technology department. At TTS, Brown, using a password, continued to access ETS's computer system without ETS's authorization. Brown also gave Musacchio access to ETS's system. This improper access of ETS's system kept on until early 2006.
In November 2010, a grand jury indicted Musacchio under
In 2012, the Government filed a superseding indictment amending those charges. Count 1 dropped the charge of conspiracy to exceed authorized access, limiting that charge to conspiracy to make unauthorized access. Count 2 amended the allegations originally contained in count 23 by alleging that Musacchio accessed specific ETS e-mail accounts "[o]n or about" November 23-25, 2005.
Musacchio proceeded to a jury trial. At no time before or during trial did he argue that his prosecution violated the 5-year statute of limitations applicable to count 2. See
For the Government's part, it submitted proposed jury instructions on the conspiracy count before and during the trial. Each set of proposed instructions identified that count as involving "Unauthorized Access to Protected Computer[s]," and none required the jury additionally to find that Musacchio conspired to exceed authorized access to protected computers. Musacchio *714 did not propose instructions on the conspiracy count.
Diverging from the indictment and the proposed instructions, the District Court instructed the jury on count 1 that § 1030(a)(2)(C)"makes it a crime for a person to intentionally access a computer without authorization and exceed authorized access." App. 168 (emphasis added). The parties agree that this instruction was erroneous: By using the conjunction "and" when referring to both ways of violating § 1030(a)(2)(C), the instruction required the Government to prove an additional element. Yet the Government did not object to this error in the instructions.
The jury found Musacchio guilty on both counts 1 and 2. The District Court sentenced him to 60 months' imprisonment. Musacchio appealed, making the two challenges that he again advances in this Court. First, he challenged the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conspiracy conviction on count 1. He maintained, moreover, that the sufficiency of the evidence should be assessed against the erroneous jury instruction that included the additional element. Second, he argued, for the first time, that his prosecution on count 2-for unauthorized access-was barred by the 5-year statute of limitations because the superseding indictment was filed seven years after the crime and did not relate back to the timely original indictment.
The Fifth Circuit rejected both challenges and affirmed Musacchio's conviction.
Second, the Fifth Circuit rejected Musacchio's statute-of-limitations defense, concluding that he had "waived" the defense by failing to raise it at trial.
We granted certiorari to resolve two questions that have divided the lower courts. 576 U.S. ----,
II
We first address how a court should assess a sufficiency challenge when a jury instruction adds an element to the charged crime and the Government fails to object. We hold that, when a jury instruction sets forth all the elements of the charged crime but incorrectly adds one more element, a sufficiency challenge should be assessed against the elements of the charged crime, not against the erroneously heightened command in the jury instruction.
That conclusion flows from the nature of a court's task in evaluating a sufficiency-of-the-evidence challenge. Sufficiency review essentially addresses whether "the government's case was so lacking that it should not have even been submitted to the jury."
Burks v. United States,
A reviewing court's limited determination on sufficiency review thus does not rest on how the jury was instructed. When a jury finds guilt after being instructed on all elements of the charged crime plus one more element, the jury has made all the findings that due process requires. If a jury instruction requires the jury to find guilt on the elements of the charged crime, a defendant will have had a "meaningful opportunity to defend" against the charge.
*716 Musacchio does not contest that the indictment here properly charged him with the statutory elements for conspiracy to obtain unauthorized access. The jury instructions required the jury to find all of the elements of that charged offense beyond a reasonable doubt. Nor does he dispute that the evidence was sufficient to convict him of the crime charged in the indictment-of conspiring to make unauthorized access. Accordingly, the Fifth Circuit correctly rejected his sufficiency challenge.
The Fifth Circuit erred, however, in basing that conclusion on the law-of-the-case doctrine. See
III
We now consider whether a defendant may successfully raise the statute-of-limitations bar in
A
Statutes of limitations and other filing deadlines "ordinarily are not jurisdictional."
*717
Sebelius v. Auburn Regional Medical Center,
568 U.S. ----, ----,
Congress has not made such a clear statement here. Rather, the statutory text, context, and history establish that § 3282(a) imposes a nonjurisdictional defense that becomes part of a case only if a defendant raises it in the district court.
The statutory text suggests that § 3282(a) does not impose a jurisdictional limit. Section 3282(a) provides:
"Except as otherwise expressly provided by law, no person shall be prosecuted, tried, or punished for any offense, not capital, unless the indictment is found or the information is instituted within five years next after such offense shall have been committed."
Although § 3282(a) uses mandatory language, it does not expressly refer to subject-matter jurisdiction or speak in jurisdictional terms. The text of § 3282(a) does not, therefore, provide a "clear indication that Congress wanted that provision to be treated as having jurisdictional attributes."
Henderson, supra, at 439,
Context confirms that § 3282(a) does not impose a jurisdictional limit. Federal courts' general criminal subject-matter jurisdiction comes from
The history of the limitations bar in § 3282(a) demonstrates that it is a defense that becomes part of a case only if the defendant presses it in the district court. This Court held in
United States v. Cook,
Cook
was decided more than 140 years ago, and we have adhered to its holding. Just three Terms ago, we reaffirmed that "[c]ommission of [a federal] crime within the statute-of-limitations period is not an element of the ... offense," and "it is up to the defendant to raise the limitations defense."
Smith v. United States,
568 U.S. ----, ----,
In keeping with § 3282(a)'s text, context, and history, we conclude that § 3282(a) provides a nonjurisdictional defense, not a jurisdictional limit.
B
Because § 3282(a) does not impose a jurisdictional limit, the failure to raise it at or before trial means that it is reviewable on appeal-if at all-only for plain error. See Fed. Rule Crim. Proc. 52(b) (providing for consideration of "[a] plain error that affects substantial rights" even though the error "was not brought to the court's attention"). We conclude, however, that a district court's failure to enforce an unraised limitations defense under § 3282(a) cannot be a plain error. 3
As explained above, a statute-of-limitations defense becomes part of a case only if the defendant puts the defense in issue. When a defendant presses a limitations defense, the Government
then
bears the burden of establishing compliance with the statute of limitations by presenting evidence that the crime was committed within the limitations period or by establishing an exception to the limitations period. See
Cook,
A defendant thus cannot successfully raise the statute-of-limitations defense in § 3282(a) for the first time on appeal. The Fifth Circuit correctly refused to consider Musacchio's limitations defense here.
* * *
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the judgment of the Fifth Circuit.
It is so ordered.
Counts 2 through 22 charged other defendants with exceeding authorized access to specific e-mail accounts. App. 68-70. Those defendants pleaded guilty, and later indictments dropped those counts.
In resolving the first question presented, we leave open several matters. First, we express no view on the question whether sufficiency of the evidence at trial must be judged by reference to the elements charged in the indictment, even if the indictment charges one or more elements not required by statute. Second, we do not suggest that the Government adds an element to a crime for purposes of sufficiency review when the indictment charges different means of committing a crime in the conjunctive. Third, we also do not suggest that an erroneous jury instruction cannot result in reversible error just because the evidence was sufficient to support a conviction.
Because we conclude that the failure to enforce § 3282(a)'s limitations defense cannot be plain error, we do not resolve whether the failure to raise that defense in the District Court amounts to waiver (which some courts have held to preclude all appellate review of the defense) or forfeiture (which some courts have held to allow at least plain-error review). See
United States v. Franco-Santiago,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Micheal MUSACCHIO, Petitioner v. UNITED STATES.
- Cited By
- 629 cases
- Status
- Published