Sawyer v. United States

LIPEZ, Circuit Judge.

The United States appeals from a judgment of the district court granting F. William Sawyer a writ of error coram nobis, vacating his guilty plea to a one-count information charging him with honest services mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1346, and ordering that his record be expunged. The district court based its decision on a recent opinion of the Supreme Court, United States v. Sun-Diamond Growers of California, 526 U.S. 398, 119 S.Ct. 1402, 143 L.Ed.2d 576 (1999), construing the federal gratuities law, 18 U.S.C. § 201, to require that the prosecution…