Immigrant Fighting Florida Gun Charge

From the Florida Phoenix: By Michael Moline - May 4, 202

A Florida man will get a chance to overturn his conviction for being in possession of firearms while illegally living in the United States under a ruling handed down Monday by a federal appellate court.

A federal trial judge in Central Florida had blocked Oniel Russell from telling the jury that he believed he was in the country legitimately in 2013 when a police officer pulled over his car in Orange County and found two guns.

That’s because he’d planned to marry a U.S. citizen and had filed the paperwork to seek resident status, according to court records. Unfortunately for him, the woman had discovered he was still married to a woman in Jamaica and withdrew her support for his petition.

That meant that, as far as immigration authorities were concerned, he’d overstayed his original tourist visa and was subject to removal.

Russell tried to argue he hadn’t known that, but the federal trial judge cited a legal precedent by the U.S. Court of Appeal for the 11th Circuit holding that a defendant’s state of mind was immaterial to the offense. That precedent was binding on trial courts within the 11th Circuit’s jurisdiction, which includes Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.

However, last year the U.S. Supreme Court overruled that decision. Consequently, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit agreed unanimously that it was obliged to overturn his conviction.

“Russell has sufficiently shown a reasonable probability that but for the error, the outcome of his trial would have been different,” Judge Charles Wilson wrote.

“Of course, we pass no judgment on whether Russell actually had the requisite knowledge under [the firearms statute] — that is for a jury to decide. And it may be that the government can present evidence to convince the jury that Russell knew he had no legal status in the United States at the time of his traffic stop.

“But we are convinced that, on this record, Russell has demonstrated a reasonable probability that but for the district court’s exclusion of his [residency petition], the outcome would have been different.”

This story was originally published by the Florida Phoenix. For more stories from the Florida Phoenix, visit FloridaPhoenix.com.