The memorandum assigns associates to help draft an appellate brief for a case involving a defendant charged with torture and conspiracy in Liberia. The defendant filed a motion to dismiss the indictment which was partially granted, dismissing the torture charge but keeping the conspiracy charge. The U.S. Attorney's Office intends to appeal the dismissal of the torture charge and potentially file a cross-appeal challenging the conspiracy charge ruling. Associates are asked to draft the appellate brief arguing the torture charge dismissal should be reversed and addressing the conspiracy charge ruling.

1. Memorandum
To: Associates in LARW II Section A/B (Last names beginning with K-Z)
From: Professor Goering
Date: February 13, 2007
Re: Appellate Brief Assignment: United States of America v. Roy M. Belfast, Jr.
_____________________________________________________________________________
_
We have been retained by the United States Attorney’s Office to assist with an appellate
brief to be filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The defendant is
Roy Belfast, Jr., a/k/a Charles Taylor, Jr. He recently pleaded guilty in Miami to making a false
statement on a passport application. On December 6, 2006, the day before he was to be
sentenced for the passport violation, he was arrested for engaging in torture, conspiring to engage
in torture, and carrying a firearm in connection with a crime of violence. The indictment alleges
that all of these offenses occurred in the West African country of Liberia in July 2002.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office, specifically Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Rochlin, needs
our help preparing for the appeal. The defendant filed a Motion to Dismiss the Indictment for
Factual Insufficiency. He essentially argued that the indictment was not specific enough to
sufficiently charge the defendant with torture and conspiracy. However, the indictment clearly
charges the defendant with very specific, detailed, and graphic acts of torture against a single
individual, although the victim is not identified by name. The defendant also complained in his
motion that the indictment does not specifically name the co-conspirators. Needless to say, the
government opposed the defendant’s Motion to Dismiss, and the United States District Court for
the Southern District of Florida held oral arguments on the motion last week.
Yesterday, on February 12, 2007, Magistrate Judge Turnoff issued his ruling on the
motion. The Report and Recommendation is in the file. Basically, the magistrate judge granted
defendant’s motion to dismiss the torture charge but retained the conspiracy charge. The district
court is expected to issue an order within ten days approving the magistrate’s Report and
Recommendation.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office intends to seek permission to take an immediate appeal from
the dismissal of the underlying charge of torture. If the government is successful in securing
permission to file its interlocutory appeal, the Federal Appellate Defender’s Office plans to file a
cross-appeal challenging the magistrate’s decision not to dismiss the conspiracy count.
I need your help in drafting the appellate brief. The attached file contains all the
documents in the record that we currently have available. Note that a couple of transcripts are
missing. One is the transcript of the pretrial detention hearing, which was taped on December
15. The other is the transcript of the February 5 hearing on the defendant’s motion to dismiss. I
have contacted the court reporters to order copies of those transcripts, but it may take awhile to

2. get them for you. In the meantime, you can review the documents in the record and begin
preparing the appellate brief.
I have attached a copy of the transcript of the press conference held on December 6,
2006, at which the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced the indictment against the defendant for
participating in the alleged torture of a victim in Monrovia, Liberia. Keep in mind that the press
conference transcript is not evidence and is not part of the trial record. However, it gives you
some helpful background information on the case.
Be sure to check the local rules of the Eleventh Circuit for filing appellate briefs. Also,
remember that Fed. R. App. P. 28 and 32 govern the filing of briefs in the circuit courts of
appeal, so you must carefully comply with those general rules as well.
Please draft the brief for our client. The narrative portion of your draft should be no
longer than 15 double-spaced pages, excluding the Cover Page, Table of Contents, Table of
Authorities, and Certificate of Service. Your title page, margins, pagination, and other format
issues must be consistent with the local rules of the Eleventh Circuit and the Federal Rules of
Appellate Procedure. We would normally file our brief as appellant on the primary issue (the
dismissal of Count Two – the torture count), and then wait for the defendant to respond by filing
its cross-appeal on the conspiracy count. However, in the interest of expediency, please go
ahead and prepare our cross-appellee’s brief on that issue as part of the same appellate brief, but
under a separate argument heading.
I will need your draft brief no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 2, so we can review
it together and make necessary revisions before the filing deadline in early April. For your draft
brief, you may omit the Table of Contents, Table of Authorities, Summary of Argument, and
Certificate of Service. Of course, all of those sections are necessary in your final appellate brief,
which should be ready for filing. Thank you for your assistance.
PLEASE NOTE: You may discuss the assignment and your research with other
associates in our firm only (LARW Section A/B), but do not show your written work or your
legal analysis to anyone but me or my junior partner, Matt Stromberg. The Honor Code applies
to this assignment and all others in this course. If you have questions, please refer to the
Washburn University School of Law Honor Code, or ask me for clarification. Feel free to ask
either Mr. Stromberg or me if you have any questions about this assignment.