Convictions should outlive defendants' deaths, US tells appeals court

Pixarbio

04/12/2023 22:18

* 
      1st Circuit only one of 12 regional circuits to not decide
issue
    

        * 
      Case involves securities fraud defendant Frank Reynolds
who died
    

  
    By Nate Raymond
       Dec 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Justice on
Monday urged a federal appeals court in Boston to break new
ground by holding that a defendant's conviction outlasts his
death and does not get wiped away just because he died before
his appeal could be heard, in a case involving a former biotech
chief executive's securities fraud conviction.
    Prosecutors in making that argument to the 1st U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals acknowledged that every other federal appeals
court would under their precedents vacate former PixarBio Corp
CEO Frank Reynolds' conviction following his 2022 death.
    But Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Quinlivan told the
three-judge panel the practice had no constitutional basis and
was inconsistent with statutes like the Victims Rights Act aimed
at protecting victims and holding those who wronged them
accountable.
    "It really is a slap in the face to the victims of a crime
and their loved ones because it tells them that they are
unimportant and indeed irrelevant in the eyes of the law,"
Quinlivan said. 
    Reynolds was found guilty in 2019 by a federal jury of
carrying out a scheme to mislead investors into believing he was
a successful inventor with a drug in development that would end
opioid addiction.
    But prosecutors said the claims he made about himself, the
drug and its regulatory approval timeline were overhyped and
untrue and his goal was to defraud investors out of their money,
pump up the value of his company's stock and get rich in the
process.
    Reynolds was sentenced in 2020 to seven years in prison and
ordered to forfeit $280,000 and pay about $7.5 million in
restitution to his victims. When he died mid-appeal, prosecutors
asked the 1st Circuit to not vacate his conviction.
    The other 11 regional appeals courts have adopted a legal
doctrine under the common law known as "abatement ab initio," in
which trial convictions are vacated when a defendant dies before
he or she can exhaust their appeals.
    U.S. Circuit Judge William Kayatta said prosecutors needed
"a pretty good argument to upset an apple cart that is going
uniformly across the country without any sign of being a big
problem."
    But Quinlivan noted a growing number of states (31) have in
recent years abandoned the practice of vacating convictions at
the state court level for defendants who died during appeals.
    Quinlivan said vacating a deceased defendant's convictions
also means wiping out financial penalties imposed at a
defendant's sentencing, including restitution ordered to
compensate those victims.
    U.S. Circuit Judge O. Rogeriee Thompson, though, noted the
Justice Department can in that instance bring a civil case
against a defendant's estate, a route that would allow family
members a fair chance to contest any restitution.
    "Even though there's been a conviction, until that
conviction has been fully reviewed for error, then it shouldn't
count as a final judgment," she said.
    Judith Mizner, a federal public defender appointed after
Reynolds died by the 1st Circuit to argue in favor of vacating
convictions, said the doctrine respected the fundamental role
appeals play in ensuring a conviction was just. 
    "It is a fundamental part of our criminal justice system,"
she said.
    The case is United States v. Reynolds, 1st U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals, No. 20-1268.
    For the United States: Mark Quinlivan of the U.S. Attorney's
Office for the District of Massachusetts 
    For the opposing side: Judith Mizner of the Federal Defender
Office
    
    Read more:
    Former PixarBio CEO convicted of defrauding biotech
investors
    Biotech CEO, two associates accused by U.S. of securities
fraud

 (Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston)