United States v. Love

In January 2002, Deon Love (defendant) was federally charged with being a felon and drug user in possession of a firearm and selling a stolen firearm. In May 2002, a jury acquitted Love of selling a stolen firearm and convicted Love of possessing a firearm. At trial, it was undisputed that Love had a felony record. Only one witness, William Thomas, testified to directly observing Love with a firearm. Thomas testified that Thomas had seen Love with a rifle or shotgun and a little revolver on April 27, 2001. Thomas claimed that Love had offered to sell Thomas the guns, but Thomas declined. Love attempted to cross-examine Thomas about Thomas’s mental impairments. Love presented evidence that Thomas was diagnosed in 1996 with short- and long-term memory impairment and schizophrenia. The district court refused to allow Love to question Thomas about Thomas’s mental impairment. Although other witnesses testified regarding the firearm-sale charge, those witnesses stated that they never observed a firearm in Love’s possession during the sale. Love appealed from his conviction. Love acknowledged that Thomas’s schizophrenia had little relevance to Thomas’s testimony, but Love argued that the district court’s exclusion of questions about Thomas’s impaired memory violated Love’s constitutional right to confront witnesses. The government (plaintiff) claimed that the district court had ample opportunity to observe Thomas and determine whether Thomas was able to competently recall events or suffering from a mental impairment during his testimony.