U.S. v. Noriega, s. 92-4687

Citation117 F.3d 1206
Decision Date07 July 1997
Docket NumberNos. 92-4687,96-4471,s. 92-4687
Parties47 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 786, 11 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C 103 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Manuel Antonio NORIEGA, Defendant-Appellant.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (11th Circuit)

Jon May, May & Cohen, P.A., Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Frank A. Rubino, Coconut Grove, FL, for Defendant-Appellant.

Roberto Martinez, U.S. Atty., Dawn Bowen, Linda Collins Hertz, Asst. Attys. Gen., Miami, FL, for Plaintiff-Appellee in No. 92-4687.

Kendall Coffey, U.S. Atty., Linda Collins Hertz, Dawn Bowen, Asst. U.S. Attys., Miami, FL, FOR Plaintiff-Appellee in No. 96-4471.

Michael O'Kane, Coral Gables, FL, for applicant Peter Eisner.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Before ANDERSON and EDMONDSON, Circuit Judges, and KRAVITCH, Senior Circuit Judge.

KRAVITCH, Senior Circuit Judge:

Manuel Antonio Noriega appeals: (1) his multiple convictions stemming from his involvement in cocaine trafficking; 1 and (2) the district court's denial of his motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence. In attacking his convictions, Noriega asserts that the district court should have dismissed the indictment against him due to his status as a head of state and the manner in which the United States brought him to justice. Noriega also contends that the district court committed two reversible evidentiary errors. Alternatively, he seeks a new trial based on his discovery of: (1) the government's suppression of its pact with a non-witness; and/or (2) certain allegations, lodged after his conviction, that a group associated with the undisclosed, cooperating non-witness bribed a prosecution witness. We affirm Noriega's convictions and the district court's order denying his new trial motion.

I.

On February 4, 1988, a federal grand jury for the Southern District of Florida indicted Manuel Antonio Noriega on drug-related charges. At that time, Noriega served as commander of the Panamanian Defense Forces in the Republic of Panama. Shortly thereafter, Panama's president, Eric Arturo Delvalle, formally discharged Noriega from his military post, but Noriega refused to accept the dismissal. Panama's legislature then ousted Delvalle from power. The United States, however, continued to acknowledge Delvalle as the constitutional leader of Panama. Later, after a disputed presidential election in Panama, the United States recognized Guillermo Endara as Panama's legitimate head of state.

On December 15, 1989, Noriega publicly declared that a state of war existed between Panama and the United States. Within days of this announcement by Noriega, President George Bush directed United States armed forces into combat in Panama for the stated purposes of "safeguard[ing] American lives, restor[ing] democracy, preserv[ing] the Panama Canal treaties, and seiz[ing] Noriega to face federal drug charges in the United States." United States v. Noriega, 746 F.Supp. 1506, 1511 (S.D.Fla.1990). The ensuing military conflagration resulted in significant casualties and property loss among Panamanian civilians. 2 Noriega lost his effective control over Panama during this armed conflict, and he surrendered to United States military officials on January 3, 1990. Noriega then was brought to Miami to face the pending federal charges.

Following extensive pre-trial proceedings and a lengthy trial, a jury found Noriega guilty of eight counts in the indictment and not guilty of the remaining two counts. The district court entered judgments of conviction against Noriega upon the jury's verdict and sentenced him to consecutive imprisonment terms of 20, 15 and five years, respectively. Noriega timely appealed his convictions. During the pendency of that appeal, Noriega filed in district court a motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence. This court deferred further consideration of Noriega's initial appeal while the district court heard Noriega's new trial motion. When the district court denied that motion, Noriega took a second, timely appeal. Both matters now are properly before this court.

II.

At trial, the government presented the testimony of numerous witnesses as well as documentary evidence to prove Noriega's guilt. Noriega, through both cross-examination and defense witness testimony, fervently contested the veracity of the witnesses and the significance of the documents offered by the government. Under the defense theory of the case, Noriega's subordinates used his name in their drug-trafficking schemes, but Noriega had no personal connection to the alleged offenses. "The facts set out below are those which the jury might reasonably have found from the evidence properly admitted at trial." United States v. Paradies, 98 F.3d 1266, 1271 (11th Cir.1996).

From the early 1970s to 1989, Noriega secured progressively greater dominion over state military and civilian institutions in Panama, first as his nation's chief of military intelligence and later as commander of the Panamanian Defense Forces. In the early 1980s, Noriega's position of authority brought him into contact with a group of drug traffickers from the Medellin area of Colombia (the "Medellin Cartel"). Various Medellin Cartel operatives met with Noriega's associates and, later, with Noriega personally, regarding the Medellin Cartel's desire to ship cocaine through Panama to the United States. Eventually, Noriega and the Medellin Cartel reached the first of a series of illicit agreements. Thereafter, from 1982 through 1985, with Noriega's assistance, the Medellin Cartel transported significant quantities of cocaine through Panama to the United States. It also utilized its relationship with Noriega to move ether for cocaine processing and substantial cash proceeds from drug sales from the United States to or through Panama.

Noriega and his associates personally met with Medellin Cartel leaders in Colombia, Panama and Cuba regarding the transshipping arrangement, unofficial asylum for Medellin Cartel members fleeing prosecution and a botched plan to operate a cocaine processing laboratory in the Darien region of Panama. The Medellin Cartel directed large cash payments to Noriega in connection with its drug, ether and cash shipments through Panama. During this period, Noriega opened secret accounts in his name and the names of his family members with the Bank of Credit and Commerce International ("BCCI") in Panama. Noriega's associates made large, unexplained cash deposits into these accounts for him. In 1988, Noriega transferred approximately $20,000,000 of his amassed fortune to banks in Europe. The government ultimately located more than $23,000,000 of funds traceable to Noriega in financial institutions outside of Panama.

III.

Noriega challenges his convictions on five distinct grounds: the first three relate to the district court's decision to exercise jurisdiction over this case and the final two concern evidentiary rulings by the district court. Noriega does not contend that the record contains insufficient evidence to support the jury's verdicts of guilt and the resultant judgments of conviction entered by the district court.

A.

Noriega raised two of his three quasi-jurisdictional appellate claims via a pre-trial motion to dismiss the indictment which the district court denied. Generally, "when a district court denies a motion to dismiss [an] indictment, this court only reviews the denial for abuse of discretion." United States v. Thompson, 25 F.3d 1558, 1562 (11th Cir.1994). To the extent Noriega's assignments of error on these matters implicate the district court's resolution of questions of law, however, our review is de novo. See generally United States v. Logal, 106 F.3d 1547, 1550 (11th Cir.1997).

1.

Noriega first argues that the district court should have dismissed the indictment against him based on head-of-state immunity. He insists that he was entitled to such immunity because he served as the de facto, if not the de jure, leader of Panama. The district court rejected Noriega's head-of-state immunity claim because the United States government never recognized Noriega as Panama's legitimate, constitutional ruler.

The Supreme Court long ago held that "[t]he jurisdiction of courts is a branch of that which is possessed by the nation as an independent sovereign power. The jurisdiction of the nation within its own territory is necessarily exclusive and absolute. It is susceptible of no limitation not imposed by itself." The Schooner Exchange v. McFaddon, 11 U.S. (7 Cranch) 116, 136, 3 L.Ed. 287 (1812). The Court, however, ruled that nations, including the United States, had agreed implicitly to accept certain limitations on their individual territorial jurisdiction based on the "common interest impelling [sovereign nations] to mutual intercourse, and an interchange of good offices with each other...." Id. at 137. Chief among the exceptions to jurisdiction was "the exemption of the person of the sovereign from arrest or detention within a foreign territory." Id. (emphasis added).

The principles of international comity outlined by the Court in The Schooner Exchange led to the development of a general doctrine of foreign sovereign immunity which courts applied most often to protect foreign nations in their corporate form from civil process in the United States. See Verlinden B.V. v. Central Bank of Nigeria, 461 U.S. 480, 486, 103 S.Ct. 1962, 76 L.Ed.2d 81 (1983). To enforce this foreign sovereign immunity, nations concerned about their exposure to judicial proceedings in the United States:

follow[ed] the accepted course of procedure [and] by appropriate representations, sought recognition by the State Department of [their] claim of immunity, and asked that the [State] Department advise the Attorney General of the claim of immunity and that the Attorney General instruct the United States Attorney for the [relevant district] to file in the district court...

To continue reading

Request your trial
114 cases
  • U.S. v. Campa, No. 01-17176.
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit
    • 4 Junio 2008
    ...Allegations of prosecutorial misconduct present mixed questions of law and fact that we review de novo. United States v. Noriega, 117 F.3d 1206, 1218 (11th Cir. 1997). We review jury selection under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), de novo, but we revie......
  • El-Hadad v. Embassy of United Arab Emirates
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — District of Columbia
    • 30 Agosto 1999
    ...that absent a formal suggestion of immunity, a putative head of state should receive no immunity. See generally United States v. Noriega, 117 F.3d 1206, 1211-12 (11th Cir.1997). None of the defendants invoking the head of state immunity is alleged to be the sitting official head of state of......
  • Tachiona v. Mugabe
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York
    • 30 Octubre 2001
    ...129. In re Grand Jury Proceedings, 817 F.2d at 1110. 130. See supra note 122 and cases cited therein; see also United States v. Noriega, 117 F.3d 1206, 1212 (11th Cir.1997) ("Because the FSIA addresses neither head-of-state immunity, nor foreign sovereign immunity in the criminal context, h......
  • Cole v. Vannoy
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Louisiana
    • 2 Enero 2020
    ...States v. Emueqbunam, 268 F.3d 377, 403-04 (6th Cir. 2001); Jones v. Gibson, 206 F.3d 946, 958 (10th Cir. 2000); United States v. Noriega, 117 F.3d 1206, 1218 (11th Cir. 1997), United States v. Spillone, 879 F.2d 514, 520 (9th Cir. 1989)); Thompson, 161 F.3d at 808. This court must determin......
  • Request a trial to view additional results
1 firm's commentaries
17 books & journal articles
  • Head of state immunity as sole executive lawmaking.
    • United States
    • Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law Vol. 44 No. 4, October 2011
    • 1 Octubre 2011
    ...against former Philippine President Marcos, holding head of state immunity inapplicable to former official). United States v. Noriega, 117 F.3d 1206 (11th Cir. 1997) (denying claim of head of state immunity by Panamanian General Manuel Noriega because, by prosecuting Noriega, Executive Bran......
  • Probable cause and reasonable suspicion: arrests, seizures, stops and frisks
    • United States
    • James Publishing Practical Law Books Archive Suppressing Criminal Evidence - 2020 Contents
    • 31 Julio 2020
    ...“outrageous and shocking” governmental conduct. See U.S. v. Matta-Ballesteros , 71 F.3d 754 (9th Cir. 1995); United States v. Noreiga , 117 F.3d 1206 (11th Cir. 1997). Unlike searches, probable cause to arrest does not become “stale.” United States v. Lopez , 35 M.J. 5 (U.S.M.A. 1992). PR A......
  • Probable cause and reasonable suspicion: arrests, seizures, stops and frisks
    • United States
    • James Publishing Practical Law Books Suppressing Criminal Evidence Fourth amendment searches and seizures
    • 1 Abril 2022
    ...“outrageous and shocking” governmental conduct. See U.S. v. Matta-Ballesteros , 71 F.3d 754 (9th Cir. 1995); United States v. Noreiga , 117 F.3d 1206 (11th Cir. 1997). Unlike searches, probable cause to arrest does not become “stale.” United States v. Lopez , 35 M.J. 5 (U.S.M.A. 1992). §5:0......
  • Probable Cause and Reasonable Suspicion: Arrests, Seizures, Stops and Frisks
    • United States
    • James Publishing Practical Law Books Archive Suppressing Criminal Evidence - 2016 Contents
    • 4 Agosto 2016
    ...“outrageous and shocking” governmental conduct. See U.S. v. Matta-Ballesteros , 71 F.3d 754 (9th Cir. 1995); United States v. Noreiga , 117 F.3d 1206 (11th Cir. 1997). Unlike searches, probable cause to arrest does not become “stale.” United States v. Lopez , 35 M.J. 5 (U.S.M.A. 1992). Prac......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT