A jury found appellant George Rogers guilty of committing various firearms violations named in a three count indictment. He now appeals the convictions, claiming that reversible error occurred when the district court failed to instruct the jury on an essential element of each of the offenses. Though the evidence presented at trial is insufficient to sustain the jury's verdict on one of the three counts, we deem the instructional omission to be harmless beyond a reasonable doubt and thus affirm on the remaining two charges.

After arresting appellant George Rogers for driving while intoxicated, Broward County, Florida Deputy Sheriff Mahmoud Mashnouk searched both Rogers and the truck he had been driving. Deputy Mashnouk discovered that Rogers was carrying on his person a .22 caliber handgun and one magazine of .380 caliber ammunition. Inside Rogers's vehicle, Mashnouk found a loaded .380 caliber Baretta pistol equipped with a flash suppressor. In addition, the officer located beneath the driver's side seat of the truck a black bag containing a MAC-11 pistol, a silencer, a flash suppressor, .380 caliber ammunition, several ammunition magazines for the MAC-11, two holsters, and miscellaneous other items. Later investigation revealed that the MAC-11 had been fully modified to function as a "machinegun"1 under federal law. Further, the silencer did not possess a serial number and had not been registered in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.

Following his arrest, Rogers agreed to be interviewed by, among others, Special Agent Dale Armstrong from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. During this conversation, Rogers professed his expertise in weapons and correctly identified the silencer and the MAC-11. Nonetheless, Rogers vehemently denied ownership of those two firearms and claimed that he had no idea who might have placed them in his vehicle.

Thereafter, the United States returned an indictment charging Rogers with: 1) knowing possession of a machinegun in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(o ) (1994) (count one); 2) knowing possession of a silencer not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record in violation of 26 U.S.C. §§ 5861(d), 5871 (1994) (count two); and 3) knowing possession of a silencer without a serial number in violation of 26 U.S.C. §§ 5861(i), 5871 (1994) (count three). At trial, the Government played for the jury an edited audiotape of Rogers's postarrest interview.2 Testifying on his own behalf, Rogers contended that the black bag seized by Deputy Mashnouk was not his, and he continued to maintain that he had no knowledge of how the illegal weapons came to be in his truck. Also, Rogers again positively identified the firearms that are the subject of this case.3

While instructing the jury on the pertinent offenses, the district court generally advised the panel that for each violation the Government had to prove Rogers "knowingly possessed" the firearm in question. In explaining the law applicable to count 2, however, the court elaborated:

It is not necessary for the Government to prove that the Defendant knew that the item described in the indictment was a "firearm" which the law requires to be registered.... What must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt is that the Defendant knowingly possessed the item as charged, that such item was a "firearm" as defined above, and that i[t] was not then registered to the Defendant in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.

Rogers objected to this instruction on the basis that the prosecution could not prevail unless it demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that "the defendant knew th[e] items in question were firearms" under the National Firearms Act, 26 U.S.C. §§ 5801-5872 (1994) (the "Act"). The district court overruled Rogers's objection.

The jury subsequently convicted Rogers on all counts; the district judge sentenced him to time served (thirty-three months), three concurrent three year terms of supervised release, and a special assessment of $150. Relying on the United States Supreme Court's recent opinion in Staples v. United States, 511 U.S. 600, 114 S. Ct. 1793, 128 L. Ed. 2d 608 (1994), Rogers presently asserts the district court committed error when it refused to inform the jury that the Government was obligated to establish he knew the characteristics of the weapons at issue that subjected them to the Act's regulatory scheme.

The Act contains various directives, including registration requirements, that apply to a class of statutorily defined "firearms." See 26 U.S.C. §§ 5845(a), 5861 (1994). In Staples, the Supreme Court addressed the mens rea element under § 5861(d) of the Act.4 After expressing its reluctance to interpret laws in a manner that would "criminalize a broad range of apparently innocent conduct," Staples, 511 U.S. at ----, 114 S. Ct. at 1799 (quotation omitted), the Court concluded that the Government can procure a conviction under the subsection only when it proves the defendant "knew of the features of his [weapon] that brought it within the scope of the Act," id. at ----, 114 S.Ct. at 1804. We must now consider the effect of this holding, which overrules the previous law of this Circuit, cf. United States v. Gonzalez, 719 F.2d 1516, 1522 (11th Cir.1983), cert. denied, 465 U.S. 1037, 104 S. Ct. 1312, 79 L. Ed. 2d 710 (1984), on Rogers's convictions.

A. Rogers's Conviction Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(o)

With limited exceptions, 18 U.S.C. § 922(o) makes it unlawful for an individual to possess a machinegun. In a consonant voice, the parties contend that Rogers's conviction under this subsection should be reversed due to insufficient evidence. We agree.5 The MAC-11 machinegun located in Rogers's truck had originally been manufactured as a semi-automatic pistol. Because the Government did not introduce any evidence showing that Rogers was aware that the MAC-11 had been altered to operate as a fully automatic weapon,6 his conviction on this count cannot stand. See Staples, 511 U.S. at ----, 114 S. Ct. at 1804.

B. Rogers's Convictions Under 26 U.S.C. §§ 5861(d), (i), 5871

The jury also found that Rogers possessed an unregistered and unserialized silencer in violation of 26 U.S.C. §§ 5861(d), (i), 5871. These convictions pose a considerably more difficult problem on this appeal. As discussed above, the district court, over a defense objection, refused to inform the jury that the Government had the burden of showing Rogers "knew th[e] items in question were firearms" under the Act.7 With the benefit of the Supreme Court's opinion in Staples, we can now indubitably state that the district court's action effectively omitted from the instructions an essential element of the crime charged under § 5861(d).8

In 1947, the Supreme Court stressed that in a criminal case "guilt is determined by the jury, not the court." United Bhd. of Carpenters v. United States, 330 U.S. 395, 410, 67 S. Ct. 775, 783, 91 L. Ed. 973 (1947). This right, grounded in the Sixth Amendment,9 to have the jury decide guilt or innocence reposes within that body the "overriding responsibility ... to stand between the accused and a potentially arbitrary or abusive Government that is in command of the criminal sanction." United States v. Martin Linen Supply Co., 430 U.S. 564, 572, 97 S. Ct. 1349, 1355, 51 L. Ed. 2d 642 (1977). "Thus, although a judge may direct a verdict for the defendant if the evidence is legally insufficient to establish guilt, he may not direct a verdict for the State, no matter how overwhelming the evidence." Sullivan v. Louisiana, 508 U.S. 275, 277, 113 S. Ct. 2078, 2080, 124 L. Ed. 2d 182 (1993).

While the Sixth Amendment ensures that the defendant's peers in the community will serve as the ultimate arbiters of his fate, the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause10 creates the legal framework which guides the jury in its task. See id. at 277-78, 113 S.Ct. at 2080-81. Significantly, the Government bears the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt all elements of the crime charged. Id. Indeed, the Supreme Court has "explicitly h[e]ld that the Due Process Clause protects the accused against conviction except upon proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the crime with which he is charged." In re Winship, 397 U.S. 358, 364, 90 S. Ct. 1068, 1073, 25 L. Ed. 2d 368 (1970). Put simply, then, "the jury verdict required by the Sixth Amendment is a jury verdict of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." Sullivan, 508 U.S. at 278, 113 S.Ct. at 2081.

Given this background, it is readily apparent that in this case the district court committed an error of constitutional dimension when it declined to instruct the jury on an essential element of the crime. Our quite daunting task is to determine the effect of that error. Rogers asserts that the failure to instruct on an essential element of an offense is per se reversible. On the other hand, the Government predictably declares that affirmance is in order because the error was harmless. Neither we nor the Supreme Court has ever definitively ascertained the consequences that should follow from an instructional omission, and our sister circuits are divided on the issue.11

To settle this dispute, we begin by recalling the benchmark decision in Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 87 S. Ct. 824, 17 L. Ed. 2d 705 (1967). There, the Court rejected the notion that a constitutional error in all cases compels reversal. Id. at 22, 87 S.Ct. at 827. Rather, the encroachment at trial of a constitutional right may be considered harmless if the beneficiary of the error "prove[s] beyond a reasonable doubt that the error complained of did not contribute to the verdict obtained." Id. at 24, 87 S.Ct. at 828. By so holding, the Court "continued a trend away from the practice of appellate courts in this country and in England of reversing judgments for the most trivial errors." Connecticut v. Johnson, 460 U.S. 73, 82, 103 S. Ct. 969, 975, 74 L. Ed. 2d 823 (1983) (plurality opinion) (quotation and alteration omitted).

The Chapman Court did acknowledge, though, that there exist "some constitutional rights so basic to a fair trial that their infraction can never be treated as harmless error." Chapman, 386 U.S. at 23, 87 S.Ct. at 827-28. Throughout the years, it has become evident that this limitation is confined to constitutional errors that cause a "structural defect affecting the framework within which the trial proceeds, rather than simply an error in the trial process itself." Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279, 310, 111 S. Ct. 1246, 1265, 113 L. Ed. 2d 302 (1991). Thus, we must reverse without regard to the underlying facts of a particular case where, for example, the defendant is totally deprived of the right to counsel, tried before a biased judge, refused his right to self-representation, or denied his right to a public trial. See id. at 309-10, 111 S.Ct. at 1264-65 (collecting cases). "Without these basic protections, a criminal trial cannot reliably serve its function as a vehicle for determination of guilt or innocence, and no criminal punishment may be regarded as fundamentally fair." Rose v. Clark, 478 U.S. 570, 577-78, 106 S. Ct. 3101, 3106, 92 L. Ed. 2d 460 (1986) (citation omitted).

We would be hard pressed to conclude that incomplete jury instructions exemplify a "structural defect[ ] in the constitution of the trial mechanism, which def[ies] analysis by 'harmless-error' standards." Fulminante, 499 U.S. at 309, 111 S.Ct. at 1265. Instead, we liken the error before us to other "trial errors which occur 'during the presentation of the case to the jury, and which may therefore be quantitatively assessed in the context of other evidence presented.' " Sullivan, 508 U.S. at 281, 113 S.Ct. at 2082-83 (quoting Fulminante, 499 U.S. at 307-08, 111 S.Ct. at 1264). Of particular relevance here are those cases dealing with the application of harmless error analysis to constitutionally defective jury instructions.12 In Rose, the Court ruled that an error under Sandstrom v. Montana, 442 U.S. 510, 99 S. Ct. 2450, 61 L. Ed. 2d 39 (1979), which erects an unconstitutional mandatory presumption shifting to the defendant the burden of proof on an element of the offense, could in some cases appropriately be the subject of harmless error review. Rose, 478 U.S. at 579-82, 106 S.Ct. at 3106-08. The Court restated this conclusion in Carella v. California, 491 U.S. 263, 266, 109 S. Ct. 2419, 2421, 105 L. Ed. 2d 218 (1989) (per curiam). More importantly, however, Carella included a cogent concurrence penned by Justice Scalia more precisely elaborating upon the type of harmless error inquiry suitable when reviewing a Sandstrom claim. See Carella, 491 U.S. at 267-73, 109 S.Ct. at 2421-24 (Scalia, J., concurring).

Other circuits have indicated that Justice Scalia's concurrence in Carella outlines the harmless error framework to be used in appeals involving instructions that omit an essential element of the offense. Roy, 81 F.3d at 866-67; Parmelee, 42 F.3d at 392-93. We understand full well that there are some important differences between the incomplete instructions in this case and the Sandstrom violation at issue in Carella. Nonetheless, we, too, find Justice Scalia's concurrence persuasive in the instant context and therefore deem the reasoning of that opinion to be applicable when adjudicating the effect of instructional omissions. Cf. Carella, 491 U.S. at 270, 109 S.Ct. at 2423 (Scalia, J., concurring) (suggesting that all errors in instructions that "deprive[ ] the jury of its factfinding role" should be evaluated similarly).

According to Justice Scalia, where the trial court's directions prevented the jury from determining guilt beyond a reasonable doubt on every element of the offense, due regard for the defendant's Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights necessitates that harmless error analysis be available only in those "rare situations when the reviewing court can be confident that such an error did not play any role in the jury's verdict." Id. at 270, 109 S. Ct. at 2423 (quotations and alteration omitted). Consequently, an instructional omission, similar to a Sandstrom error, may be viewed as harmless only in three rather infrequent scenarios: 1) Where the infirm instruction pertained to a charge for which the defendant was acquitted (and not affecting other charges); 2) Where the omission related to an element of the crime that the defendant in any case admitted; and 3) Where the jury has necessarily found certain other predicate facts that are so closely related to the omitted element that no rational jury could find those facts without also finding the element.13 See id. at 270-71, 109 S.Ct. at 2423-24.

Employing this standard in the appeal currently before us, we are confident that the facts of this case fall squarely within the second category listed above. In his postarrest interview, which was reproduced for the jury via audiotape, and again on the witness stand at trial, Rogers emphatically and without reservation admitted that he knew the item found in his truck was a silencer. In fact, Rogers is a self-described student of silencers who had purchased at least one book on the subject. Moreover, Rogers's attorney during closing argument reiterated and attempted to downplay the defendant's concession on this point.14 These unequivocal assertions convince us that this is a case in which the instructional omission related to an element of the crime that the defendant in any case admitted.

Given Rogers's open and forthright admission, we may find the instructional error harmless if we decide that the Government has "prove[d] beyond a reasonable doubt that the error complained of did not contribute to the verdict obtained." Chapman, 386 U.S. at 24, 87 S. Ct. at 828. "The inquiry, in other words, is not whether, in a trial that occurred without the error, a guilty verdict would surely have been rendered, but whether the guilty verdict actually rendered in this trial was surely unattributable to the error." Sullivan, 508 U.S. at 279, 113 S.Ct. at 2081. We have absolutely no difficulty in concluding that the constitutional error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, as we are certain that the verdict in this case would have been the same absent the defective instruction. In light of the relevant evidence evaluated by the jury, including Rogers's repeated admissions, we hold that the omission was "unimportant in relation to everything else the jury considered on the issue in question, as revealed in the record." Yates v. Evatt, 500 U.S. 391, 403, 111 S. Ct. 1884, 1893, 114 L. Ed. 2d 432 (1991). It follows that Rogers's convictions for violating 26 U.S.C. §§ 5861(d), (i), 5871 must be affirmed.15

Due to the Supreme Court's recent opinion in Staples, we are constrained to reverse for insufficiency of the evidence Rogers's conviction for violating 18 U.S.C. § 922(o ). Still, because we have determined that the constitutional error committed by the district court when instructing the jury was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, we affirm Rogers's convictions for violating 26 U.S.C. §§ 5861(d), (i), 5871.

AFFIRMED in part and REVERSED in part.