Interesting sufficiency ruling from the 10th Circuit

Coming on-line today is a decision from the 10th Circuit involving what I suspect is a rare reversal of a jury conviction based on insufficiency of the evidence.  The circuit’s decision in US v. Dunmire, No. 04-3002 (10th Cir. Apr. 5, 2005) (available here), caught my eye because the Court did not disturb an underlying conviction for distributing crack, but it did find that “the government failed to submit sufficient evidence to support the jury’s finding that the amount of crack cocaine Defendant agreed to knowingly and intentionally distribute amounted to five or more grams.”  In other words, the defect of the government’s proof did not concern whether the defendant was involved in criminal behavior, but rather whether “the alleged conspirator agreed to distribute a certain quantity of drugs.”