United States v. Poole

GORSUCH, Circuit Judge.

John Poole appeals his conviction for assault resulting in serious bodily injury on the basis that the jury’s verdict was impermissibly ambiguous. Mr. Poole points to the fact that, in addition to finding him guilty of assault resulting in serious bodily injury, the jury proceeded to find him guilty of the lesser included offense of simple assault — and did so despite the district court’s instruction that the jury should consider the lesser offense only if it found Mr. Poole not guilty of, or could not reach a verdict on, the greater offense. As it happens, however, the…