164363P.pdf   08/10/2018  United States  v.  Mohamed Farah
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  16-4363
                          and No:  16-4364
                          and No:  16-4366
   U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota - St. Paul   
   [PUBLISHED] [Gruender, Author, with Loken and Erickson, Circuit Judges] 
   Criminal case - Criminal law and sentencing. The district court conducted 
   a sufficient inquiry over the course of two hearings into defendant 
   Farah's concerns, and it did not abuse its discretion by denying defendant 
   Farah's attorney's eve-of-trial motion to withdraw and by refusing to 
   appoint substitute counsel; the district court's instruction on conspiracy 
   to commit murder was not erroneous, as the instruction correctly defined 
   murder and any error concerning the question of specific intent to kill 
   was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, given the evidence in the case 
   clearly showed all defendants understood they would engage to kill on 
   behalf of ISIL if they reached Syria; the district court did not err in 
   rejecting defendants' requests for instructions on the affirmative 
   defenses of combatant immunity and defense of others; based on this 
   record, the court can presume the district court considered the 
   defendants' arguments regarding sentencing disparities; defendants' 
   sentences, all of which were downward variances, were not substantively 
   unreasonable.