Venue in Criminal Cases

One year ago, a judge agreed with me that the government had failed to prove venue in a criminal case and acquitted my client about two hours after the government rested. The government appealed, and I just filed a brief defending the judge’s ruling – the judge had applied the law as set forth by the Supreme Court and the circuit, and the judge got it right.

Venue is not a mere technicality – it is a right based in the Constitution, and it should be treated seriously. The government has stretched venue in many cases in recent years (such as in the Varsity Blues case, which I believe should not have been charged in Massachusetts), and this has real effects on people’s ability to defend themselves in terms of cost, availability of defense witnesses, and even the law, as the government can forum-shop and bring cases in jurisdictions where the law is more favorable to them.

For those of you who are wondering why you are facing charges in a part of the country you’ve never been to, talk with your lawyers about looking at venue. Venue arguments should be made before trial, during trial, and after trial, and lawyers should specifically request and draft jury instructions on venue. From what I can tell, there are not many pattern instructions on venue because the issue does not come up a lot, but I’m happy to share research if anyone wants some help.

And for those of you who are wondering how this particular situation came about, I think the government expected to base venue on an alleged “co-conspirator” whom they planned to call at trial but had not really debriefed before charging the case. As they got close to trial, I think they realized that the “co-conspirator” was going to say some things that were very helpful to my client, including how she did not think that she was part of the alleged conspiracy, so I think they dropped the witness, “solving” one problem but creating others.

Big thanks to Jenna Solari and Garett Eldred for their work with me on the brief! I met Jenna a year ago and am really glad that she agreed to work with me on this case.