United States v. David Cochran

REINHARDT, Circuit Judge:

Cochran appeals his conviction for extortion under 18 U.S.C. § 1951. He argues that the district court’s failure to conduct an adequate colloquy with him before accepting his written waiver of a jury trial constitutes reversible error. We disagree.

I. FACTS

In open court, before Cochran signed a waiver of jury trial, his lawyer told the court that he and Cochran had “discussed the pros and cons of various methods to proceed.” He said that they had decided that Cochran would waive his right to a jury trial and have a court trial instead. The following exchange then took…