U.S. v. Greenspan — criminal — affirmance — Bibas

UPDATE: on May 1 the court granted the government’s motion to amend the original opinion and issued a new opinion. The link above is the new opinion; the prior one is here.

“Sometimes, the only plausible explanation for a lab’s stream of payments to a doctor is cash for blood.” Quite an opening to today’s Third Circuit opinion affirming a doctor’s convictions for fraud and taking bribes and kickbacks. In an opinion that’s a model of lucidity, the court found that the district court committed multiple errors—limiting an advice-of-counsel defense by suggesting that the defendant bore the burden of proof and excluding evidence in support of the defense, and at sentencing asking the defense counsel rather than the defendant himself whether he wished to allocute—but affirmed due in part to overwhelming evidence of guilt.

A practice point for criminal defense practitioners to note: the court noted but did not answer the question of whether cumulative error is a discrete claim that defendants must raise in district court or forfeit on appeal. [On reflection, I believe I was wrong that the opinion was discussing whether cumulative error must be raised in district court; instead, I now believe, it was talking about whether it must be preserved on appeal or forfeit on appeal. Thanks to a helpful reader for flagging this.]

Joining Bibas were Hardiman and Krause. Arguing counsel were Peter Goldberger for the defendant and Steven Sanders of the N.J. Office of the U.S. Attorney for the government. The opinion observed that defense counsel “thoroughly examined the extensive record and skillfully highlighted the errors and potential errors,” adding, “We are grateful for their expert assistance in doing so.”