U.S. v. Leija-Sanchez

Defendants could properly be charged under 18 USC section 1959(a)(1) for arranging murder of individual located in Mexico in order to reduce competition against Chicago-based criminal organization that created bogus immigration documents. While defendants argued that they could not be charged with instant offense because individual was actually killed in Mexico, and because charged offense proposed extraterritorial application of U.S. law, Ct. of Appeals found that defendants could be charged with said offense, where defendants’ actions were designed to affect commerce in U.S., even though certain important acts took place abroad. Ct. rejected defendants’ argument that instant holding conflicted with decision in Morrison, 561 US 247, which recognized presumption against extraterritorial application of U.S. civil statutes. Ct. further held that two defendants forfeited their argument that their conspiracy to commit murder convictions under 18 USC section 956(a)(1) did not apply to them because they were in Mexico at time murder contract had been issued, since: (1) defendants failed to object to state’s proposed jury instruction that defined “jurisdiction of U.S.” to mean regulatory jurisdiction of U.S.; (2) no Court of Appeals has agreed with defendants’ argument; and (3) defendants’ proposed error did not affect integrity of instant judicial proceedings.