Background
Andre Twitty, a criminal defendant proceeding pro se, appealed from the district court’s order denying his motion to dismiss a count in his indictment brought under Section eighteen United States Code, Section one hundred fifteen, subsection A, paragraph one, subsection B. The district court had denied the motion on September the eighteenth, two thousand and twenty-five.
The court’s reasoning
The court held that it lacked jurisdiction because the district court’s denial was not final or otherwise appealable. First, the denial was not final because Twitty had not been sentenced on any count, meaning there was no final judgment. Second, the order was not appealable under the collateral order doctrine because Twitty could effectively challenge the order on appeal from a final judgment.
What it means going forward
The dismissal prevents appellate review of the motion to dismiss until the defendant is convicted and sentenced, at which point the issue may be raised on appeal from the final judgment.