19-4292-cr United States v. Kourani In the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit AUGUST TERM 2020 No. 19-4292-cr UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee, v. ALI KOURANI, AKA ALI MOHAMED KOURANI, AKA JACOB LEWIS, AKA DANIEL, Defendant-Appellant. On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York ARGUED: APRIL 13, 2021 DECIDED: JULY 27, 2021 Before: KEARSE, CABRANES, AND POOLER, Circuit Judges. This case presents five questions: (1) whether the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Alvin K. Hellerstein, Judge) erred in denying Defendant-Appellant Ali Kourani’s motion to suppress confessions he made during a series of interviews with the Federal Bureau of Investigation; (2) whether the District Court erred in denying Kourani’s motion claiming ineffective assistance of counsel; (3) whether the District Court erred in declining to provide Kourani’s requested jury instructions; (4) whether the evidence adduced at trial was sufficient to support Kourani’s conviction; and (5) whether Kourani’s sentence of 480 months of imprisonment was procedurally and substantively unreasonable. For the reasons stated in this opinion, we hold that the District Court did not err in its pretrial and trial rulings and that the evidence adduced at trial was sufficient to support Kourani’s conviction. Further, we hold that Kourani’s sentence was not unreasonable. Accordingly, we AFFIRM the District Court’s December 18, 2019 judgment of conviction. Judge Pooler dissents in part in a separate opinion. PETER J. TOMAO, Garden City, NY, for Defendant-Appellant. Ali Kourani, pro se, New York, NY, for Defendant-Appellant. 2 EMIL J. BOVE III (Amanda L. Houle and Karl Metzner, on the brief), Assistant United States Attorneys, for Audrey Strauss, United States Attorney, Southern District of New York, New York, NY, for Appellee. JOSÉ A. CABRANES, Circuit Judge: This case presents five questions: (1) whether the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Alvin K. Hellerstein, Judge) erred in denying Defendant-Appellant Ali Kourani’s motion to suppress confessions he made during a series of interviews with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (“FBI”); (2) whether the District Court erred in denying Kourani’s motion claiming ineffective assistance of counsel; (3) whether the District Court erred in declining to provide Kourani’s requested jury instructions; (4) whether the evidence adduced at trial was sufficient to support Kourani’s conviction; and (5) whether Kourani’s sentence of 480 months of imprisonment was procedurally and substantively unreasonable. For the reasons stated in this opinion, we hold that the District Court did not err in denying Kourani’s motions or in declining to provide the requested instruction and that the evidence at trial was sufficient to support Kourani’s conviction. Further, we hold that Kourani’s sentence was not unreasonable. Accordingly, we AFFIRM the December 18, 2019 judgment of conviction of the District Court. 3 I. BACKGROUND 1 In 2000 Defendant-Appellant Ali Kourani joined Hizballah, 2 a Lebanon-based terrorist organization, and attended a 45-day military- style boot camp in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon. His attendance was made possible by the sponsorship of a …
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