United States v. Diaz-Lopez

Luis Diaz-Lopez (defendant), a Mexican citizen, was charged with being a previously removed alien found in the United States. At his bench trial, a Border Patrol agent testified he had searched a federal database using Diaz-Lopez's name, alien number, and birth date and found no record that Diaz-Lopez had filed the form required for permission to reapply for admission. Diaz-Lopez argued this oral testimony violated the best-evidence rule, which he said required the government to produce an actual printout showing the absence of the record rather than have the agent describe the search.