United States v. Gessen

Summary

The court affirmed Gessen’s murder-for-hire conviction, holding that the district court properly admitted an agent’s lay opinion about the meaning of Gessen’s coded statements and evidence of Gessen’s prior abductions of his son. The court also held that a prosecutor’s single, withdrawn cross-examination question, even if improper, did not infect the trial with sufficient unfairness to violate due process. The court concluded that any preservation or review-standard disputes did not affect the outcome because the challenged rulings were proper and the evidence of guilt was strong.