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This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

D was employed as roadmaster of a Railroad. D was responsible under his contract 'for every detail of the safe and efficient maintenance and construction of track, structures and marine facilities of the entire railroad . . . and was to assume similar duties with special projects.' D supervised was a rock-quarrying project at a site alongside the railroad. It involved blasting rock outcroppings alongside the railroad, working the fractured rock toward railroad cars, and loading the rock onto railroad cars with a backhoe. A pipeline runs parallel to the railroad at or above ground level, within a few feet of the tracks. To protect the pipeline during the project, a work platform of sand and gravel was constructed. After D took over responsibility for the project in May 1994, no further sections of the pipeline were protected. Shane Thoe, a backhoe operator, was using the backhoe bucket to sweep the rocks from the tracks, Thoe struck the pipeline causing a rupture. An estimated 1,000 to 5,000 gallons of oil were discharged into the adjacent Skagway River, a navigable water of the United States. D was charged with one count of negligently discharging a harmful quantity of oil into a navigable water of the United States, in violation of the Clean Water Act. D was convicted of negligently discharging a harmful quantity of oil into a navigable water of the United States but acquitted him on the charge of conspiring to provide false information. The district court imposed a sentence of six months of imprisonment, six months in a halfway house and six months of supervised release, as well as a fine of $ 5,000. D appealed. D contends he cannot be convicted criminally for mere negligence. Over D's objection, the district court instructed the jury that the government was required to prove only that D acted negligently, which the district court defined as 'the failure to use reasonable care.'

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