Armed Kidnapper Beats Federal Witness Tampering Charge on Appeal

A North Dakota man who kidnapped a woman at gunpoint and then forced her to drive to an ATM so he could rob her won his Eighth Circuit appeal to undo a conviction for attempted witness tampering.

The government failed to prove that Sharmake Mohamed Abdullahi contemplated a “particular, foreseeable” federal proceeding in which the witness might appear, the US Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit said Monday.

Abdullahi was only facing state charges at the time, and all of the evidence indicated that he didn’t foresee additional federal charges, Judge Bobby E. Shepherd said.

To prove its witness ...