Tawhyne M. Patterson, Sr. v. United States

A jury returned a general verdict finding Tawhyne M. Patterson, Sr., “guilty” of violating 18 U.S.C. §924(o) where only one of the two predicate offenses alleged to support that firearms conspiracy charge was legally valid. A divided panel of the Eighth Circuit affirmed the conviction, finding the instructional error, though plain, did not affect Patterson’s substantial rights. The question presented is: Whether the Eighth Circuit erred in determining the two alleged predicate offenses were “so inextricably intertwined that no rational juror could have found Patterson… possessed firearms in relation to one predicate but not the other.”