Cite as: 522 U. S. 252 (1998)
Opinion of Stevens, J.
is not, however, necessary to prove that the defendant knew that his possession was unlawful, or that the firearm was unregistered. United States v. Freed, 401 U. S. 601 (1971); see Staples, 511 U. S., at 609. Thus, in this case, petitioner's admission that he knew the item was a silencer constituted evidence sufficient to satisfy the mens rea element of the charged offenses. He nevertheless submits that his conviction is unconstitutional because, without an instruction from the trial judge defining that element of the offense, there has been no finding by the jury that each of the elements of the offense has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Relying on Justice Scalia's opinion concurring in the judgment in Carella v. California, 491 U. S. 263, 267 (1989) (per curiam), petitioner contends that " ' "the question is not whether guilt may be spelt out of a record, but whether guilt has been found by a jury according to the procedure and standards appropriate for criminal trials." ' " Brief for Petitioner 20-21 (quoting Carella, 491 U. S., at 269 (in turn quoting Bollenbach v. United States, 326 U. S. 607, 614 (1946))).
The Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit rejected petitioner's argument and affirmed his conviction. 94 F. 3d 1519 (1996). The Court of Appeals reasoned that the failure to give an instruction on an element of the offense can be harmless error if the "omission related to an element of the crime that the defendant in any case admitted," 3 and that in this case petitioner's unequivocal and repeated admissions made it clear that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. In view of the fact that petitioner's submission relies on the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment
620 (Congress did not intend "to make outlaws of gun owners who were wholly ignorant of the offending characteristics of their weapons").
3 94 F. 3d, at 1526. The court also suggested that an instructional omission could be harmless if "the jury has necessarily found certain other predicate facts that are so closely related to the omitted element that no rational jury could find those facts without also finding the element." Ibid.
255
Page: Index Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007