United States v. Fields

BENAVIDES, Circuit Judge,

writing for the Court except as to Parts II.A.1-3. JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge, writing for the Court in Parts II.A.1-31.

This is a direct appeal in a federal death penalty case. Sherman Fields challenges his seven convictions and his death sentence, claiming more than twenty different errors. For the reasons below, we reject all of Fields’s claims of error and, accordingly, affirm his convictions and sentences.

I. BACKGROUND

The evidence presented at trial reveals the following: Fields was arrested on federal firearms charges in September 2001. He was held in federal…