United States v. Malatesta

I concur in the judgment and in all that Judge Rubin has written except for the following language [Page 12 of the typewritten draft]: “once the existence of a conspiracy and the defendant’s participation in it are both established, slight evidence of the defendant’s knowledge of the scheme may be sufficient to sustain the jury’s finding that he or she was a member (emphasis added).”

I realize that this language, appearing in prior decisions, is binding on us as a panel, but I believe the time has come for judicial re-evaluation of this “slight evidence” formulation. I believe that the true…