United States v. Figueroa

SACK, Circuit Judge:

Defendant Edwin Figueroa appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York (David G. Larimer, Judge), following a jury trial, convicting him of unlawful possession of a firearm. 1 At trial, the district court ruled that the defendant’s counsel could not cross-examine a government witness about his swastika tattoos. We conclude that this restriction on the scope of cross-examination was a violation of the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment. We affirm the conviction, however, because we also conclude that the error was…