Bourke v. United States

Issue: (1) Whether, in light of the Court's decision in Global-Tech Appliances, Inc. v. SEB S.A, the jury in a federal criminal case must be instructed that willful blindness substitutes for actual knowledge only when (a) the defendant subjectively believes that there is a high probability that a fact exists and takes "deliberate actions" to avoid learning of that fact, and (b) the defendant's conduct surpasses recklessness with respect to the fact; (2) whether jurors must agree unanimously on a specific overt act to return a guilty verdict under the general federal conspiracy statute, 18 U.S.C. § 371, or it is sufficient if all jurors agree that some overt act was committed even if they cannot agree on which act; and (3) whether, in a criminal trial, when the prosecution seeks to bolster the inculpatory testimony of a principal cooperating witness with portions of a hearsay memorandum by the witness' associate, exclusion of exculpatory and explanatory portions of the same memorandum violates Federal Rule of Evidence 106 as interpreted in light of Beech Aircraft Corp. v. Rainey, and this Court's compulsory process and due process decisions.