United States v. Orlando Fernandez

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that “[m]uch of the case against Fernandez rested on undisputed evidence” not generated by the improper questions, and concluding that “[g]iven the strength of the government’s case, it stretches credulity to believe that the improper ... questions affected the outcome of the trial.”
• finding it unfair to force witness to choose between recanting own testimony and calling law enforcement officer a liar ‘[g]iven the faith the jury may place in the word of a law enforcement officer’
• finding no plain error even though district court neglected \to give an unrequested cautionary instruction [and] the government's case largely depend[ed] on uncorroborated informant or accomplice testimony\
• finding it unfair to force witness to choose between recanting own testimony and calling law enforcement officer a liar “[gjiven the faith the jury may place in the word of a law enforcement officer”
• “Asking a witness whether a previous witness who gave conflicting testimony is ‘mistaken’ highlights the objective conflict without requiring the witness to condemn the prior witness as a purveyor of deliberate falsehood, i.e., a ‘liar.’ ”
• finding it unfair to force witness to choose between recanting own testimony and calling law enforcement officer a liar [g]iven the faith the jury may place in the word of a law enforcement officer

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).