## Facts

- After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans police officer David Warren shot Henry Glover; Glover was transported in William Tanner’s car to a police staging area for help.
- At the staging area, Tanner and others were detained while Glover remained in the car.
- Officer Gregory McRae, assigned to the staging area, moved Tanner’s car into the schoolyard, removed items from it, later drove it to a levee area, and burned it with Glover’s body inside.
- A federal jury convicted McRae of multiple offenses, including deprivation of rights under color of law (18 U.S.C. § 242) and obstruction under 18 U.S.C. § 1519 based on destroying “a record, document, or tangible object” to impede an investigation.
- On a prior appeal, the Fifth Circuit affirmed McRae’s § 1519 conviction under a broad reading of “tangible object” and remanded for resentencing.
- On remand, McRae sought a new trial based on alleged newly discovered evidence; the district court denied the motion and resentenced him.
- While the second appeal was pending, the Supreme Court decided Yates v. United States, limiting § 1519 “tangible object” to objects used to record or preserve information.

## Issues

1. Whether, after Yates v. United States, a car and a human corpse qualify as “tangible objects” under 18 U.S.C. § 1519.
2. Whether the district court abused its discretion in denying McRae’s motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence.
3. What appellate relief was required if the § 1519 conviction could not stand.

## Decision

- The Fifth Circuit vacated McRae’s § 1519 conviction and remanded for resentencing.
- The court held that, under Yates, McRae’s charged destruction of a car and a corpse did not fall within § 1519.
- The court affirmed the district court’s denial of McRae’s motion for a new trial.
- The remand was limited to resentencing in light of the vacated § 1519 count.

## Legal Principles

- Under Yates v. United States, “tangible object” in 18 U.S.C. § 1519 means an object used to record or preserve information, not any physical item that might have evidentiary value.
- When an intervening Supreme Court decision makes the charged conduct noncriminal under the statute of conviction, the conviction must be vacated and the case remanded for resentencing on any remaining counts.
- A motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence is reviewed for abuse of discretion and requires, among other elements, that the evidence be genuinely new, material, and likely to produce an acquittal.

## Conclusion

The Fifth Circuit applied Yates to hold that burning a vehicle and a body does not constitute destruction of a § 1519 “tangible object,” vacated that conviction, affirmed denial of a new trial, and remanded solely for resentencing on the remaining convictions.


United States v. McRae, 793 F.3d 392 (5th Cir. 2015)