The continuing series of violations undertaken by defendants EDDIE RICHARDSON and CARMEN TATE included: From in or about 1984, to and including October 1991, at Chicago and elsewhere in the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division,ĭefendants herein, did engage in a continuing criminal enterprise by committing a continuing series of felony violations of Section 841(a)(1) of Title 21, United States Code, which continuing series of violations was undertaken by defendants in concert with at least five other persons with respect to whom defendants occupied a position as organizer, a supervisory position, and some other position of management, and from which continuing series of violations defendants obtained substantial income and resources. The CCE charge is in Count II and the Government, in my view, charged precisely what Congress said it should. The Government procured a two-count indictment against petitioner. This is a substantial departure from what Congress intended. 87, 117 (1974), so henceforth when the Government indicts it must choose three or more specific violations and allege those, despite its ability to show that the CCE involves hundreds or thousands of sales. The elements of the offenses charged must be set forth in the indictment, see Hamling v. The Courts decision of necessity alters the manner in which the Government must frame its indictment and design its trial strategy. The consequences of the Courts decision go well beyond the jury instruction the Court discusses. Nor does the Court attempt to explain how a jury is supposed to make sense of the other elementslike deriving substantial income from the seriesnow that the series has in effect been replaced with a few discrete violations. The Court gives no satisfactory explanation for confining its holding to the continuing series phrase, while assuming nonunanimity as to the specifics of the other elements in the same subparagraph. ![]() The Court does not decide how many elements this portion of the statute contains, although it assumes without deciding that three will do. The jury must therefore be unanimous not as to whether there was a continuing series of violations but rather as to each of the individual violations making up some subset of the continuing series. The Court today reasons that the first enumerated element in the subparagraph is not an element at all instead, it is shorthand for some number of other elements corresponding to the individual violations in the series. We are concerned with subparagraph (2), which by its terms requires the Government to establish the following elements if it is to prove a CCE: (1) that the violation is part of a continuing series of violations of the drug laws (2) that the continuing series is undertaken by the accused in concert with five or more other persons (3) that the accused occupied a position of organizer, supervisor, or manager, with respect to those other persons and (4) that the accused obtained substantial income or resources from the continuing series of violations. (B) from which such person obtains substantial income or resources. 84 Stat. (A) which are undertaken by such person in concert with five or more other persons with respect to whom such person occupies a position of organizer, a supervisory position, or any other position of management, and (2) such violation is a part of a continuing series of violations of this subchapter or subchapter II of this chapter (1) he violates any provision of this subchapter or subchapter II of this chapter the punishment for which is a felony, and Title 21 U.S.C., subchapter I, §848(c) defines a person as engaged in a CCE if The jury found that petitioner was engaged in a continuing criminal enterprise (CCE). ![]() It had sales of hundreds of kilograms of heroin and cocaine over a period of years in Chicago. The evidence in this case established that petitioner was the head of a sophisticated, well-entrenched, successful drug distribution enterprise. Justice Kennedy, with whom Justice O∬onnor and Justice Ginsburg join, dissenting. UNITED STATES ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |