Extraterritoriality
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international law update Volume 22, January–March 2016
© 2016 International Law Group, LLC. All rights reserved. ISSN 1089-5450, ISSN 1943-1287 (on-line) | www.internationallawupdate.com
long as they would reasonably understand that their
conduct was criminal and would subject them to
prosecution somewhere.’ Id. at 119. As this court
has recognized, ‘drug tracking is condemned
universally by law-abiding nations.’ United States v.
Suerte, 291 F.3d 366, 371 (5th Cir.2002). In sum,
the district court did not plainly err by applying 21
U.S.C. §§ 959 and 963 extraterritorially.”
e Court armed district court judgment.
: U.S. v. Rojas, 812 F.3d 382 (5th Cir.
2016)
EXTRATERRITORIALITY
E C
,
e following case involves the international
pimp Damian Baston, whose antics include his
own “Pimp Manifesto,” bizarre golden vampire
teeth and yellow contact lenses, luxury cars, as well
as sele-style photographs in which large amounts
of cash are brandished.
In 1989, Damion Baston immigrated to
the United States from Jamaica. In 1998, he was
convicted of an aggravated felony and was ordered
removed. However, he purchased the identity
of a United States citizen and illegally reentered
the country. Under this assumed identity, Baston
obtained a United States passport and traveled
the world. He also opened bank accounts, started
businesses, rented apartments in Florida and
obtained a Florida driver’s license. Baston funded
his lavish lifestyle by forcing numerous women to
prostitute for him by beating them, humiliating
them, and threatening to kill them. He pimped
them around the world, from Florida to Australia
to the United Arab Emirates.
Baston was arrested in New York. A grand jury
indicted him on 21 counts, including sex tracking
and money laundering. Several of Baston’s victims
testied in regards to how they met him, how their
relationships progressed, how Baston used violence
and coercion to force them into prostitution, how
often they prostituted for Baston, and how much
they charged their clients. Baston testied that he
did not force the women into prostitution, and
that his activities in Australia were legal because
prostitution is legal there.
Baston was convicted by the jury of all 21
counts, and sentenced by the district court to 27
years of imprisonment and a lifetime of supervised
release. e district court ordered Baston to pay
restitution to a few of his victims. For one of his
victims, K.L., the court included the money she
earned while prostituting for Baston in the United
States, but excluded the money she earned while
prostituting for Baston in Australia. e district
court sustained Baston’s objection that restitution
be awarded based on conduct that occurred wholly
overseas would exceed the authority of Congress
under the Foreign Commerce Clause and the Due
Process Clause. e United States government
argued that the district court erred in its decision.
e United States Court of Appeals for the
Eleventh Circuit arms Baston’s convictions and
sentence, but vacates his order of restitution and
remands with an instruction for the district court
to increase his restitution obligation.
e Court reviewed the case de novo.
Baston argued that Congress cannot enact
extraterritorial laws under the Foreign Commerce
Clause. In his opinion, Congress can do so only
under the Oences Clause. He additionally argued
that section 1596(a)(2) exceeds the scope of the
Foreign Commerce Clause. e Court did not
agree.
“Congress’s power to enact extraterritorial
laws is not limited to the Oences Clause. Baston
misreads our decision in United States v. Bellaizac-
Hurtado, 700 F.3d 1245 (11th Cir. 2012), where
we held that the Maritime Drug Law Enforcement
Act, as applied to extraterritorial drug tracking,
exceeded Congress’s authority under the Oences
Clause. Id. at 1247., we did not hold that the
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