USA v. James Lamount Graham, No. 22-11809 (11th Cir. 2023)
Annotate this Case
A jury found Defendant guilty of various drug crimes. Now on appeal, Defendant attacked his indictment, claiming that the grand jury’s probable cause determination was rendered defective by the district court’s special procedures related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Under these procedures, grand jurors met in three separate federal courthouses but were joined together by videoconferencing. Defendant also argued that the wiretaps used to gather evidence against him did not meet the statutory necessity requirement.
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed. The court held that the COVID-19 accommodations that Defendant criticized introduced no fundamental error into his prosecution. The court wrote that Defendant does not claim that they affected the grand jury’s decision in any way. As for the statutory necessity claim, the district court did not clearly err in deciding that the wiretaps were necessary. The court further explained that a review of the wiretap affidavits themselves shows that they provided more than enough explanation to comply with the law. After describing the investigation’s history and goals, the affidavits comprehensively outlined the “Need for Interception” and discussed “Alternative Investigative Techniques.” They exhaustively detailed why previous sources of information and reasonable alternative methods—including physical surveillance, cameras, interviews, undercover agents, subpoenas, search warrants, trash searches, and more—would not suffice. The court found that such thorough and specific affidavits easily satisfy the legal requirements.
This opinion or order relates to an opinion or order originally issued on August 7, 2023.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.