United States v. Edgar Cherry Gant

Rule of Law:

To successfully raise the justification defenses of duress or necessity for a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, a defendant must prove that they had no reasonable, legal alternative to violating the law and that a direct causal relationship could be reasonably anticipated between possessing the firearm and abating the threat.

Facts:

• Edgar Cherry Gant, a convicted felon, owned and operated Texas Transportation Company in a high-crime area.
• Gant's business had been the target of a robbery attempt a few weeks prior to the incident in question.
• Two undercover police officers, dressed in plain clothes, entered Gant's business office and offered to sell him a machine gun.
• Suspecting the men were planning a robbery, Gant and his employee, Andrews, retreated to a storage area to confer.
• Andrews, who was already armed, suggested Gant retrieve a pistol from his office for back-up.
• Gant complied, retrieving a pistol from a filing cabinet and placing the butt of it in his pants pocket.
• Upon re-entering the main room where the officers were, Gant's visible possession of the pistol prompted the officers to identify themselves and place him under arrest.

Procedural Posture:

• Edgar Cherry Gant was charged in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas with being a felon in possession of a firearm.
• Gant waived a jury trial and stipulated to the facts constituting the crime, proceeding to a bench trial on the affirmative defenses of duress and necessity.
• The district court entered a general verdict of guilty.
• Gant, the appellant, appealed his conviction to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, arguing the evidence entitled him to acquittal based on his justification defenses.