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Case 1:19-cr-00830-AT Document35 Filed 04/24/20 Page 19 of 34
were not on trial).
Thomas’s efforts to garner sympathy, put the Government on trial, and deflect blame for
his own criminal actions plainly sound in nullification. See Reese, 933 F. Supp. 2d at 583-84;
Levin, 2016 WL 2990831, at *12. Evidence on those points does not relate to whether the
defendant committed the crimes charged, but rather is intended to elicit sympathy, compassion, or
compromise from the jury. The records Thomas seeks are no more discoverable than the
nullification evidence precluded in Armstrong and its progeny. See Armstrong, 517 U.S. at 462-
63 (defendant not entitled to discovery on race of other narcotics defendants to aid in selective
prosecution claim); United States v. Delacruz, No. 14 Cr. 815 (KBF), 2015 WL 2211943, at *4
(S.D.N.Y. May 12, 2015) (rejecting defendant’s “demands for general information and statistics
relating to the Government’s use of sting operations”); United States v. Floyd, No. 99 Cr. 0234
(DAB), 1999 WL 476438, at *2 (S.D.N.Y. July 7, 1999) (rejecting discovery request for
“background data, records and investigative reports” of the New York City Police Department
(“NYPD”) as well as information about NYPD officers’ conduct in other cases); Defreitas, 2011
WL 317964, at *10 (rejecting discovery demands related to a “factual impossibility” defense to a
conspiracy charge). It is the Court’s “duty to forestall or prevent” jury nullification. Manzano,
945 F.3d at 627 (holding that “District courts have a duty to forestall or prevent [jury nullification
arguments] and the district court in this case abdicated its duty by ruling that defense counsel could
argue jury nullification.”); see also United States v. Rosado, 728 F.2d 89, 93 (2d Cir. 1984)
(criticizing trial court for inviting nullification by permitting the defendants to mount a “political
defense” and stating that it was an “erroneous assumption that good motive for committing a crime
is inconsistent with criminal intent’).
In sum, much of the additional discovery Thomas seeks in his motion relates to legally
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Document Details
| Filename | DOJ-OGR-00022081.jpg |
| File Size | 725.3 KB |
| OCR Confidence | 94.6% |
| Has Readable Text | Yes |
| Text Length | 2,132 characters |
| Indexed | 2026-02-03 20:20:25.490749 |