United States v. Filani
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
74 F.3d 378 (1996)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
Joseph Filani (defendant) was arrested while going through customs and was charged with possession and intent to distribute heroin. At trial, Filani testified in his own defense. Filani testified that the briefcase the customs agent caught him with was not his. Often during Filani’s testimony, the trial court judge interrupted the questioning attorney and asked questions directly to Filani. Most of these interruptions portrayed skepticism toward Filani’s testimony, and the judge was at times argumentative with Filani. The trial judge also intervened during questioning of other witnesses, but only to further cast doubt on Filani’s testimony. The jury convicted Filani. He appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Cardamone, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 830,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,400 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
