American Prison Consultants - Court Rules Aggravated Identity Theft Requires Use of Specific Person’s ID

The 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a lower court ruling in U.S. vs. Mitchell, USCA No. 06-5169 in which the defendant Dwight Jose Mitchell had been charged and sentenced for bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.  Mitchell used a false driver’s license and counterfeit checks in the name of Marcus Jackson to buy merchandise and return it for cash refunds. Title 18 U.S.C. § 1028A(a)(1) of makes it a crime, called aggravated identity theft, to use a means of identification of another person (a specific person) in the commission of certain felonies, including bank fraud. Although real persons named Marcus Jackson existed, Mitchell did not couple his use of that name with a sufficient amount of correct, distinguishing information to identify a specific Marcus Jackson, as required by the statute.

The aggravated identity theft charge against Mitchell alleged that he’d used a Georgia driver’s license in the name of Marcus Jackson, to commit bank fraud by passing counterfeit checks. When arrested, he had in his possession a false license in the name of Marcus Jackson. The driver’s license number on the false license did not exist in the database of the Georgia Department of Driver Services and Mitchell testified in his own defense that he did not know anyone named Marcus Jackson, and had picked the name out of the phonebook.

Mitchell moved for a judgment of acquittal in the District Court, arguing that the name Marcus Jackson was not sufficiently unique to identify a specific person. The government argued that it only had to prove that a real person named Marcus Jackson existed, and the evidence showed there were at least two such persons. The District Court agreed with the government, denied Mitchell’s motion for acquittal, and found him guilty of aggravated identity theft.

The Appeals Court overturned Mitchell's conviction ruling there were no unique identifiers on the false license that could be used by itself to identify a particular Marcus Jackson and moreover, the many particulars of the non-unique identifiers, the particulars of name, address, and date of birth, were a hopeless muddle of non-matching information and were to general to identify a specific person.

"Hopefully this may lead to some changes in the conspiracy laws as well," said Larry Levine, founder of prison consulting firm American Prison Consultants. "The way the law exists today, you can be charged with conspiring with an 'unknown person' who never actually existed!"