If a jury convicted Driggers of the murder of his ex-wife by reason of interstate travel, can the jury convict him of the crime even if the interstate travel was utterly unrelated to the murder scheme?

The jury might well not have believed that it could convict Driggers if the interstate travel had been utterly unrelated to the murder scheme. However, there is no way to be sure of this, and no way to know exactly what the jury believed it needed to find on this point. The instruction could have led the jury to conclude that it could convict Driggers so long as the travel somehow furthered the murder scheme, even if Driggers formed the intent to have his ex-wife murdered only after the travel had been completed. The district court itself was mistaken on this point; we must presume that the jury was as well. The instruction was therefore misleading and inadequate to guide the jury's deliberation. United States v. Dixon, 201 F.3d 1223, 1230 (9th Cir.2000).