United States v. Harper
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
33 F.3d 1143 (1994)
- Written by Kelli Lanski, JD
Facts
Late one evening, Trina Devay Harper (defendant) was arrested along with two other people (coconspirators) while they were sitting in a car outside of a bank. Police officers searched the car and surrounding area and found handguns, a stun gun, duct tape, and surgical gloves. That same evening, Harper had used the ATM outside the bank, withdrawing money using another person’s bank card. Harper did not actually take the money from the machine, instead leaving it in the bill trap so the ATM would register the money as stuck. Doing so triggered the ATM to shut down and request a service call. Harper was aware of this procedure from working at a bank. The prosecution’s theory was that Harper and her coconspirators intended to wait for the service technician to arrive and rob them once they had the ATM vault open. Harper was convicted of attempt to commit bank robbery in addition to conspiracy and firearms charges. She appealed, arguing that the United States (plaintiff) had not met its burden on the attempt charge.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Canby, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,500 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.
