U.S. v. Duran, 95-3096

• Decision Date: 08 October 1996
• Docket Number: No. 95-3096,95-3096
• Citation: 96 F.3d 1495
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Francisco Martin DURAN, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

Page 1495

96 F.3d 1495

321 U.S.App.D.C. 47

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Francisco Martin DURAN, Appellant.

No. 95-3096.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued Sept. 4, 1996.

Decided Oct. 8, 1996.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 94cr00447-01).

A.J. Kramer, Federal Public Defender, Washington, DC, argued the cause and filed the briefs for appellant. Leigh A. Kenny, Assistant Federal Public Defender, entered an appearance.

Leslie A. Blackmon, Assistant United States Attorney, Washington, DC, argued the cause for appellee, with whom Eric H. Holder, Jr., United States Attorney, John R. Fisher, Brenda J. Johnson and Chrisellen R. Kolb, Assistant United States Attorneys, were on the brief.

Before: WALD, ROGERS and TATEL, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge WALD.

WALD, Circuit Judge:

On April 4, 1995, a jury convicted Francisco Martin Duran of ten criminal counts, all of which centered on the fact that on October 29, 1994, at around 3:00 in the afternoon, Duran stood on the Pennsylvania Avenue sidewalk in front of the White House and fired at least twenty-nine rounds across the North Lawn with an assault weapon. On appeal, the defendant challenges his convictions on three grounds. First, Duran claims that the district court erred by failing to bifurcate the trial for separate presentation of his merits and insanity defenses. Second, Duran asserts that his actions on October 29, 1994, did not render him guilty of attempting to assassinate the President of the United States under 18 U.S.C. § 1751(c). Third, Duran claims that there was insufficient evidence presented at trial to support his conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 111 for "forcibly assault[ing], resist[ing], oppos[ing], imped[ing], intimidat[ing], or interfer[ing] with" four Secret Service officers who were present on the North Lawn of the White House as he was shooting. We find merit in none of these claims, and affirm Duran's convictions.

The district judge did not abuse his discretion by denying Duran's motion to bifurcate the trial, because the defense had not demonstrated that the merits and insanity defenses were so incompatible as to require bifurcation. Nor did the joint presentation of the merits and insanity defenses at the trial result in prejudice making remand for a new bifurcated trial necessary, because the two defenses were not in fact incompatible. Duran violated § 1751(c) by engaging in a series of "substantial steps" towards his goal of killing the President in the days and hours leading up to the afternoon of October 29, 1994. We also uphold Duran's convictions under § 111 because, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, a reasonable trier of fact could have concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that as the defendant ran east along the White House fence, spraying gunfire across the North Lawn, he acted with the purpose of putting Secret Service agents on the North Lawn in fear of imminent serious bodily harm.

I. BACKGROUND

In mid-September of 1994 Francisco Martin Duran, a 26-year-old upholsterer from a suburb of Colorado Springs, Colorado, began to purchase a number of assault weapons. Evidence presented at trial established that on September 13, Duran bought an assault rifle and about 100 rounds of ammunition. Two days later, he bought a thirty-round clip and had the rifle equipped with a folding stock. Thirteen days after that, Duran bought a shotgun, and the following day still more ammunition. On September 30, Duran left work and, without contacting his family or employer, began his journey to Washington, D.C. He purchased another thirty-round clip in Charlottesville, Virginia on October 10, and the next day bought a large overcoat in Richmond, Virginia. Later that day Duran arrived in Washington, D.C., and checked into a hotel. He stayed at various hotels in the Washington area between the tenth and the twenty-ninth of October.

Shortly before 6:00 on the morning of October 29, Duran checked out of the Embassy Suites Hotel in Tysons Corner, drove to downtown Washington, and parked his truck on 17th Street, between D and E Streets. By early afternoon, he was standing in front of the north side of the White House, wearing the overcoat he had purchased earlier on his trip. As Duran stood by the White House fence, two eighth-grade students on a field trip, Robert DeCamp and Brent Owens, ran to a point along the fence thirteen feet away. DeCamp pointed toward a small group of men in dark suits standing near the White House. One of these men, civilian Dennis Basso, bore a strong resemblance to President Clinton. DeCamp remarked that the man "looked like Bill Clinton," and Owens said "Yeah, it does." Almost immediately after this exchange, Duran began firing the rifle at Basso.

Four Secret Service officers who were stationed on the north side of the White House reacted to the sound of shots by taking cover and attempting to move toward the source of the gunfire. After firing about twenty rounds from his original position, Duran began running east along the fence, continuing to fire in the direction of the White House. Then he stopped, apparently trying to reload a second thirty-round clip--at this point civilian Harry Rakowsky tackled him, and soon thereafter several Secret Service agents arrived to help subdue Duran and confiscate his rifle.

Searching his truck after his arrest, agents found one of the rifles Duran had purchased en route to Washington, several boxes of ammunition, nerve gas antidote, a letter in which Duran had written "Can you imagine a higher moral calling than to destroy someone's dreams with one bullet?," a road atlas on which Duran had written "Kill the Pres!," a cover torn from a telephone book bearing a picture of President Clinton, which Duran had defaced by drawing a circle around Clinton's head and an "X" on his face, a handwritten document with the heading "Last will and words," an order form for the book "Hit Man," and several books about out-of-body experiences. When they searched his house and office, law enforcement agents found a business card on the back of which Duran had written "Kill all government offices (sic) and department heads" and assorted other pieces of anti-government literature.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Failure to Bifurcate the Trial for Separate Presentation of Merits and Insanity Defenses

The defendant claims that the district court abused its discretion by denying his pretrial motion to bifurcate the trial into two phases dealing separately with the issues of guilt and sanity. We find that the district judge was within his discretion in denying Duran's motion to bifurcate, and that the court's failure to bifurcate the trial resulted in no unfair prejudice to either of Duran's defenses.

1. Denial of Duran's Motion to Bifurcate the Trial

Circuit law holds that a defendant should have the opportunity to benefit from both a merits-based defense and an insanity defense even when these defenses are incompatible, and thus the court should bifurcate a trial for separate presentation of these two defenses if it appears likely that either would be adversely affected by a jury hearing evidence regarding the other. Holmes v. United States, 363 F.2d 281 (D.C.Cir.1966); Contee v. United States, 410 F.2d 249 (D.C.Cir.1969). District judges must consider the possibility of such prejudice in exercising their discretion to grant or deny a motion to bifurcate, and the motion should be granted when the potential for such prejudice is apparent at the outset; that is, when the defendant demonstrates that he has "substantial," and incompatible, defenses on both the merits and insanity issues. See Contee, 410 F.2d at 250.

Before trial, Duran made a motion to bifurcate pursuant to which the parties would first try the issue of Duran's guilt on the merits, and then, if the jury found him guilty, proceed to a second "phase" in which Duran would present an insanity defense. Duran also requested, but did not condition his bifurcation request upon, the impanelment of two separate juries to hear the two different phases of the case.

To show that he was prepared to offer a "substantial" defense on the merits, Duran's counsel notified the court that he intended to prove that Duran shot toward the White House as part of a "dramatic suicide mission," rather than as part of an attempt to kill the President or anyone else. The defense described the evidence it would use in support of this theory: the defendant's disintegrating marriage, his financial troubles, statements he made to his wife just before the incident indicating that he thought she would never see him again, a note with the heading "Last will and words" found in his truck just after the shooting, his statement to the agents arresting him that he wished they had shot him, the low accuracy of his chosen weapon and his careless manner of firing it, and the testimony of doctors indicating that he was suicidal.

The evidence the defendant proffered to the court in order to show that he would offer a "substantial" insanity defense, and that this defense would be incompatible with his merits defense, included a handwritten paean to murder that he had written before the shooting, and reports by two psychiatrists and a psychologist describing him as a paranoid schizophrenic.

In denying the bifurcation motion, the court noted that "the caselaw does not provide a clear definition as to what constitutes a 'substantial defense,' " but added that a defense is not "substantial" when it consists merely of "putting the Government to its proof," or when the government's case is so strong that it would be "irrational" to suppose that the proffered defense could sway a jury. United States v. Duran, 884 F.Supp. 529, 531-32 (D.D.C.1995) (quoting United States v. Grimes, 421 F.2d 1119, 1123 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, 398 U.S. 932, 90...