Criminal Friday

If you read How Appealing, then you already know about this.  However, it bears repeating:  If you're going to commit a crime, don't tell anybody about it.  Seriously.  Unfortunately, Asante Kahari didn't listen.

In United States v. Fraser, Kahari (a/k/a Aaron Fraser) was charged with perpetrating a counterfeit-check scheme.  The problem is, it was the exact same scheme that Kahari had already written about in his book The Birth of a Criminal.  You read that right:  he wrote about how to commit a crime, got the book published, then went out and committed the actual crime.

So, the district court admitted this book into evidence, which is the basis for Kahari's appeal.  As you might expect, he loses.  See Fed. R. Evid. 404(b).

This reminds me of some sage advice I once heard from a prosecutor.  He said that if you're going to commit a crime, never tell anyone you did it.  If you're trying to impress someone, make up a crime.  They're not going to check.  Just don't admit to any crime you've actually done.   See Fed. R. Evid. 801(d)(2); see also id. 804(b)(3).