Fraud Defendant Improperly Denied Good Faith Defense Instruction

US v. Bowling, No. 08-6184, 9/3/09 - Defendant “cow farmer” was indicted for bank fraud for selling encumbered cattle under other people’s names and for not using proceeds from cattle sales to pay back his loan. At trial, he submitted a good faith defense instruction, based on evidence that his conduct was really just business as usual between him and the bank going back ten years. The district court declined to give the instruction. The 10th reversed the conviction because defendant was entitled to his theory-of-the-case instruction. In a fraud case, the defendant is entitled to a good faith instruction because general instructions on willfulness and intent are insufficient to “fully and clearly convey” the good faith defense to the jury. However, the defendant’s evidence must completely rebut all evidence that he intended to defraud. In this case, defendant’s evidence did just that.