Federal Circuits, 7th Cir. (May 18, 1976)
Docket number: 75-1422
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US Code - Title 21: Food and Drugs - 21 USC 848 - Sec. 848. Continuing criminal enterprise
US Code - Title 21: Food and Drugs - 21 USC 846 - Sec. 846. Attempt and conspiracy
U.S. Supreme Court - Jeffers v. United States, 432 U.S. 137 (1977)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Cir. - USA v. Garcia (6th Cir. 2008)
Stephen C. Bower, Kentland, Ind., for defendant-appellant.
John R. Wilks, U.S. Atty., Fort Wayne, Ind., Richard A. Hamming, Asst. U.S. Atty., Hammond, Ind., for plaintiff-appellee.Before PELL and SPRECHER, Circuit Judges, and PARSONS, Chief District Judge.*SPRECHER, Circuit Judge.This appeal arising from the conviction of the defendant for engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 848 primarily concerns the question of whether the conviction is barred on double jeopardy grounds by a prior conviction for conspiracy to distribute narcotics.* The evidence presented at trial showed that the defendant, Garland Jeffers, was the head of a highly-structured narcotics distribution network which operated in Gary, Indiana from January of 1972 to mid-March of 1974. The organization, known as "the Family," was formed by Garland Jeffers and five others to organize and control the drug traffic in the city of Gary. Although, at first, the defendant did not head up the Family, he quickly assumed control so that within a few months the organization, which had started as a cooperative venture, became his personal enterprise.A number of individuals worked as members of the Family at one time or another. Ten members testified at the trial laying out the structure and operation of the organization and the methods employed by it to control the drug traffic in Gary.During its course of operation, the Family distributed between one and two thousand capsules of heroin a day. Two witnesses whose primary function in the Family was cutting the heroin, testified that Jeffers obtained the undiluted heroin which was then cut (one ounce of heroin often making as many as 1,300 capsules) and passed on to the street distributors who worked for the Family. During 1972, the Family charged five dollars on the street for a capsule of heroin. In 1973, the price increased to ten dollars. Out of that price, the pusher got twenty percent and remitted the rest to the Family. From these sales (after commissions) the Family took in about $5,000 per day.To get and retain its exclusive control over the drug traffic in Gary, the Family robbed other drug distributors of their drugs and money. If an independent drug dealer wanted to remain in business, he had to pay tribute to the Family. One independent dealer testified that he paid the Family four or five hundred dollars per day for the better part of a year to be allowed to deal in drugs in Gary.Jeffers was installed, at first, as treasurer of the Family because he was the only non-addict in the group. This, however, appeared to be a tactical mistake because within a short period the money that the Family took in through extortion, robbery and drug sales became the sole property of the defendant. Jeffers gave the rest of the Family members salaries for their efforts except the street workers who were paid by commissions. The enforcers and other middlemen were paid at first $100 per week and later $200 per week. Isaac Davis testified that in 1972 twelve members received $100 per week and in 1973 fourteen or fifteen received $200 per week. The members who cut the heroin and controlled the distribution process were paid $500 per week. Willie J. Williams, who had been a cutter for the Family, received $1,000 per week when he took over a large part of the management of the organization. Williams testified that he was present on two occasions when the defendant purchased an automobile for a member of the Family and also testified that Jeffers paid rent on at least two dwellings in which members of the Family lived. Isaac Davis similarly testified that Jeffers bought cars for members of the Family and paid their rent.Beyond paying Family members, Jeffers exercised strong control over the group. He issued severe beatings to Family members who "messed up." On two occasions, he shot members of the Family for disciplinary purposes. On one occasion, he had been beating a number of Family members and was evidently "wore out." So instead of issuing the final member a beating, Jeffers made him lie on the floor and then walked over and shot him in the leg.1 On the other occasion, Isaac Davis related that he, Jeffers and a street worker for the Family went over to James Berry's house to straighten out some complaints Berry had been making about not receiving a fair share of the money. They got Berry out of bed, took him next door and shot him five times in the leg. He was then taken to a hospital.The defendant profited handsomely from the business. Several witnesses testified that the Family took in about $5,000 per day (exclusive of street commissions). Williams testified that Jeffers received around $25,000 per week in net profits from drug sales alone. This figure would occasionally dip below $20,000, and would at times rise to $50,000 per week. Other income was coming in through extortion and robbery. Jeffers bought a $37,000 house, more than $2,000 in clothes, $4,200 in furniture, a $900 pool table, several cars for the Family members, paid rent on Family dwellings and kept up a substantial payroll. In 1973, Jeffers paid more than $21,000 in legal fees. Taking an extremely conservative estimate that Jeffers made a net income of $10,000 per week over the two-year and two-month period during which the Family operated, Jeffers' income for the entire period totals over a million dollars.The trial at which this evidence was presented lasted seven days. The government produced more than thirty witnesses who testified to all aspects of the Family's operation and to elements of Jeffers' income. The jury deliberated for thirty minutes before finding the defendant guilty as charged in the indictment. Garland Jeffers was sentenced to life imprisonment to be served consecutively with his 15 year sentence for conspiring to distribute heroin and cocaine.IIWe turn first to the question of whether Jeffers' conviction for engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise is barred by a prior conspiracy conviction involving the same events.* On March 18, 1974, Garland Jeffers and nine others were indicted in the Northern District of Indiana for violations of 21 U.S.C. § 846, conspiracy to distribute heroin and cocaine. The indictment alleged that "(f)rom on or about November 1, 1971 . . . to and including the date of this indictment . . . the defendants . . . did unlawfully, knowingly and wilfully conspire, combine, confederate and agree . . . to distribute heroin . . . and to distribute cocaine. . . ." The indictment further alleged that the conspiracy was to be accomplished by operating "an organization known as the 'Family,' " and that "(t)he purpose of 'The Family' organization was to . . . control the traffic in heroin and cocaine in and around the city of Gary, Indiana." A trial was held on this indictment and on June 26, 1974 Garland Jeffers and six others were found guilty of conspiracy to distribute narcotics as charged in the indictment. We affirmed that conviction in United States v. Jeffers, 520 F.2d 1256 (7th Cir. 1975).On the same day that the conspiracy indictment was handed down, the indictment charging Garland Jeffers with violations of 21 U.S.C. § 848, engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, was also handed down. This indictment alleged that "(o)n or about the 1st day of November 1971, . . . and continuing to the date of this indictment . . . Garland Jeffers . . . did engage in continuing criminal enterprise in that he did distribute and possess with intent to distribute heroin, . . . and cocaine, .. . and undertook such distribution in concert with five or more other people in respect to whom he occupied a position of organizer, supervisor and manager and further as a result of such distribution and other activity obtained substantial income in violation of Section 848, Title 21 of the United States Code." Thus, the indictments cover the same time period and, as seen from the evidence adduced at the continuing criminal enterprise trial, involve the same narcotics distribution ring.The government attempted to consolidate the trial on the criminal enterprise charge with the conspiracy trial. The defendants in the conspiracy trial, including Garland Jeffers, objected strenuously to the consolidation on a number of grounds, focusing primarily on the contentions that conspiracy and continuing criminal enterprise were not "the same" and that great prejudice would result to Garland Jeffers in the criminal enterprise charge by bringing in evidence as to co-conspirators in the conspiracy which did not directly inculpate Garland Jeffers. The trial court held that the trials could not be joined.Prior to trial on the continuing criminal enterprise charge (but after the conspiracy trial) Garland Jeffers filed a motion to dismiss the criminal enterprise indictment on double jeopardy grounds. The trial court denied the motion and a trial was held. On March 26, 1975, the jury returned the guilty verdict.BThe basis for all double jeopardy claims resides in the Fifth Amendment guarantee that no person shall "be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." The defendant contends on appeal that conspiracy and continuing criminal enterprise are "the same offense" for double jeopardy purposes. The defendant argues that the crime of conspiracy charged in the first indictment was a lesser included offense of the crime of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, and that as such the offenses are considered the same under the double jeopardy clause.The Supreme Court has written that a lesser included offense must "be included within but not, on the facts of the case, be completely encompassed by the greater (and that) the . . . greater offense requires . . . a disputed factual element which is not required for conviction of the lesser-included offense." Sansone v. United States, 380 U.S. 343, 350, 85 S.Ct. 1004, 1009, 13 L.Ed.2d 882, 888 (1965). Thus, all the elements of the offense must be included within the greater so that proof of the greater necessarily proves the lesser. James v. United States, 238 F.2d 681, 683 (9th Cir. 1956), Government of the Virgin Islands v. Carmona, 422 F.2d 95, 100 (3d Cir. 1970).Conspiracy to distribute narcotics falls within the definition of a lesser included offense of continuing criminal enterprise. The elements of a continuing criminal enterprise include, inter alia, that the accused engaged in a continuing series of violations of the Controlled Substances Act which are undertaken in concert with five or more other persons with respect to whom the accused occupies some supervisory position.2 Since a criminal enterprise charge requires proof that the accused acted in concert with five or more persons, it requires proof of a conspiracy. The proof at the criminal enterprise trial that Garland Jeffers in concert with five or more individuals engaged in a continuing series of violations of the Controlled Substances Act, necessarily proved that Garland Jeffers had engaged in a drug conspiracy as charged in the first indictment. Thus, the conspiracy charge under the standard definition is a lesser included offense of the continuing criminal enterprise charge.Since 1911, the Supreme Court has held that conviction of what we now call a lesser included offense, bars subsequent prosecution for the greater offense. In Gavieres v. United States, 220 U.S. 338, 31 S.Ct. 421, 55 L.Ed. 489 (1911), the Court was asked to overturn Gavieres' conviction for insulting a public officer on the grounds that it was barred by the petitioner's prior conviction for drunkenness in public arising from the same acts. The Court saw the question as one of defining the scope to be given to the guarantee against being twice placed in jeopardy.It is to be observed that the protection intended and specifically given is against second jeopardy for the same offense. The question, therefore, is, Are the offenses charged . . . identical?Id. at 341-42, 31 S.Ct. at 422, 55 L.Ed. at 490. The Court answered this question by taking the view propounded by Judge Gray of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts in Morey v. Commonwealth, 108 Mass. 433 (1871). Judge Gray wrote:A conviction or acquittal upon one indictment is no bar to a subsequent conviction and sentence upon another, unless the evidence required to support a conviction upon one of them would have been sufficient to warrant a conviction upon the other. The test is not whether the defendant has already been tried for the same act, but whether he has been put in jeopardy for the same offense. A single act may be an offense against two statutes; and if each statute requires proof of an additional fact which the other does not, an acquittal or conviction under either statute does not exempt the defendant from prosecution and punishment under the other.Id. at 434, quoted at 220 U.S. at 342, 31 S.Ct. at 422, 55 L.Ed. at 490. By this test, a lesser included offense and its greater offense will always be considered the same for double jeopardy purposes since the elements of the lesser offense are always included within the greater and thus, proof of the greater would be sufficient to warrant a conviction on the lesser.The Gavieres test has continuing vitality as it was relied upon in Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 304, 52 S.Ct. 180, 182, 76 L.Ed. 306, 309 (1932). In Blockburger the Court had to decide whether the petitioner who was convicted of two offenses arising out of the same acts could be sentenced to serve consecutive terms for the offenses. The issue was resolved in double jeopardy terms in that the Court saw the question as "whether, both sections being violated by the same act, the accused committed two offenses or only one." Id. The Court resolved the question by relying upon the Gavieres formulation. It wrote:Each of the offenses created requires proof of a different element. The applicable rule is that, where the same act or transaction constitutes a violation of two distinct statutory provisions, the test to be applied to determine whether there are two offenses or only one, is whether each provision requires proof of a fact which the other does not. Gavieres v. United States, 220 U.S. 338, 342 (31 S.Ct. 421, 422, 55 L.Ed. 489, 490). (Id.)The Gavieres test basically holds that conviction of the greater or lesser offense, bars prosecution for another included offense. Blockburger extended this by holding that a person could only be punished for one of a series of included offenses, even though he may have been convicted of all the offenses at the same trial.3CIn the recent case of Iannelli v. United States, 420 U.S. 770, 95 S.Ct. 1284, 43 L.Ed.2d 616 (1975), the Supreme Court seems to have formed a new double jeopardy approach towards complex statutory crimes. In Iannelli eight defendants were each convicted on basically the same facts both of running an illegal gambling business in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1955 and of conspiracy to run such a business, 18 U.S.C. § 371. The petitioners challenged their convictions and sentences claiming that the conspiracy charge should have merged with the substantive offense under Wharton's Rule and that punishment on both offenses violated the fifth amendment guarantee against double jeopardy. The Court upheld their convictions and sentences relying on a perceived congressional intention to retain each offense as an "independent curb" in the war against organized crime. 420 U.S. at 791, 95 S.Ct. at 1296, 43 L.Ed.2d at 630. The double jeopardy contention was passed over in a footnote, id. at 785 n.17, 95 S.Ct. at 1293, 43 L.Ed.2d at 627, and the theme of the opinion seems to be that at least in the area of complex statutory crimes, if Congress intends that two offenses be retained as independent offenses, prosecution under both is permissible.The elements required to prove a § 1955 violation include: 1) conducting, managing, supervising, a gambling business which is in violation of state law, 2) which "involves five or more persons who conduct, finance, manage, supervise, direct, or own all or part of such business," 3) and which remains in substantially continuous operation in excess of thirty days or has gross revenue of $2,000 in any single day.4 The requirement that the business involve five or more persons in supervisory positions clearly constitutes a requirement for some sort of concerted activity. If five or more persons own, manage or supervise a business, they certainly have an agreement, either explicit or tacit to operate the business, and have joined in a conspiracy for that purpose.5The only element required to prove a conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 371 to violate § 1955 is an agreement to run an illegal gambling business (and an overt act in furtherance of the agreement). This requirement of concerted activity is also an element of § 1955. By a traditional analysis, then, the conspiracy charge is a lesser included offense of a substantive charge under § 1955. If it is proven that a person managed, supervised or directed, along with five other people an illegal gambling business, certainly, it has also been proven that he conspired to run an illegal gambling business.6Under the traditional analysis of Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932), punishment could not be imposed for two offenses, one of which contains all the elements of the other (i. e., for both the lesser included offense and the greater). The Court in Iannelli, however, characterizes Blockburger as a tool for statutory interpretation rather than a double jeopardy decision by suggesting that it "serves a . . . function of identifying congressional intent to impose separate sanctions for multiple offenses arising in the course of a single act or transaction." 420 U.S. at 785 n.17, 95 S.Ct. at 1293, 43 L.Ed.2d at 627. The focus of Blockburger which centered on whether two offenses were "the same" to determine whether the imposition of sentences on both offenses constituted double punishment, has been shifted by the characterization given it in the Iannelli opinion. Thus, the focus to determine if two offenses are "the same" for double jeopardy purposes, at least in regard to complex statutory crimes, now appears to center on the congressional intent with regard to such crimes. The Court in Iannelli in dealing with the application of Wharton's Rule to the situation there, wrote: (A)s the Rule is essentially an aid to the determination of legislative intent, it must defer to a discernible legislative judgment.Id., at 786, 95 S.Ct. at 1294, 43 L.Ed.2d at 628. And concluded:We think it evident that Congress intended to retain each offense as an "independent curb" available for use in the strategy against organized crime.Id., at 791, 95 S.Ct. at 1296, 43 L.Ed.2d at 630.For offenses derived from the common law and for simple statutory crimes, the Gavieres-Blockburger tests provide an important safeguard and serve a useful function. For instance, with regard to the numerous degrees of homicide from first-degree murder down through manslaughter and reckless homicide, the reason that the different degrees exist is not so that numerous convictions can be obtained against one defendant, but so that for one homicide, the proper degree of censure and punishment can be meted out. It would be totally improper for society after it had chosen the proper degree of censure and punishment for an individual, for instance by conviction for manslaughter, then to try and obtain a higher degree by prosecuting the individual for first-degree murder. Society has made its choice with regard to characterizing the homicide committed by the defendant, and should not be allowed to change it.In regard to highly complex statutory crimes, however, the included offense tests are often not appropriate to determine whether two offenses should be classed as "the same," because often, even though these offenses meet the included offense test, they are directed at quite different results. For instance, in the present case, conspiracy and continuing criminal enterprise are aimed at punishing different things. Conspiracy is aimed at the evil of collective criminal agreement, and seeks to attack problems quite apart from the evil of the underlying offense, for as noted in Callanan v. United States, 364 U.S. 587, 593, 81 S.Ct. 321, 325, 5 L.Ed.2d 312, 317 (1961), "(c)oncerted action both increases the likelihood that the criminal object will be successfully attained and decreases the probability that the individuals involved will depart from their path of criminality."The crime of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise is aimed at something much different than just punishing concerted drug violations. Congress first included continuing criminal enterprise in the Drug Control Act, not as an independent crime, but as a sentencing alternative, the purpose being to severely punish those criminals who made a substantial living by violating the drug laws.7 For procedural and constitutional reasons,8 the original proposal was changed to create an independent crime. However, the purpose of the provision did not change. The purpose, to punish and take out of circulation persons who are engaged in the manufacture and sale of drugs primarily for the profits to be derived therefrom, is evident in both the provision itself, and the legislative history. The provision, 21 U.S.C. § 848(b)(2)(B), requires as proof of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise that the defendant be shown to have derived substantial profits from the enterprise. As part of the penalty provision, it allows imposition of large fines ($100,000), 21 U.S.C. § 848(a)(1), and permits forfeiture of all profits from the enterprise along with any interest, or any claim in any property or contractual rights in the enterprise. 21 U.S.C. § 848(a)(2). The House Committee Report which accompanied the bill spoke of providing "severe criminal penalties for persons engaged in illicit manufacture or sale of controlled drugs primarily for the profits to be derived therefrom." H.R.Rep.No.1444, 91st Cong., 2nd Sess. (1970) (to accompany H.R. 18583), 1970 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News pp. 4566, 4575. The report also noted that the continuing enterprise provision "is intended to serve as a strong deterrent to those who otherwise might wish to engage in the illicit traffic, while also providing a means for keeping those found guilty of violations out of circulation." Id. at 4576. The difference between conviction for engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise and engaging in a conspiracy to violate the drug laws is not just one of the degree of censure and punishment to be meted out for one's violation of the drug laws.9 It is a difference in character and purpose. From reading the legislative history, we conclude that Congress did not intend that continuing criminal enterprise be just another degree of conspiracy, but intended that it be a substantially separate crime, an independent weapon in the government's arsenal in the war on illicit drugs.10From this analysis, then, we conclude that the conspiracy charged in the first indictment and the continuing criminal enterprise charged in the second indictment were not the "same offense" for double jeopardy purposes,11 and a prior conviction on the first indictment did not bar prosecution on the second.12IIIPrior to trial, the defendant made a verified motion for change of judge in accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 144. The defendant contended that since Judge Sharp had already sat at numerous trials concerning the exploits of the Family, and since the judge had presided at the defendant's prior conspiracy trial, the judge was prejudiced against the defendant and was required to recuse himself. Judge Sharp denied the motion and presided at the trial.A judge when presented with a timely motion under § 144 must recuse himself if the motion alleges facts sufficient to show judicial bias even though he may know them to be entirely false. Berger v. United States,255 U.S. 22, 41 S.Ct. 230, 65 L.Ed. 481 (1921). The judge may not judge the verity of the facts presented, but must judge their sufficiency. Hodgson v. Local 2, Distillery Workers, 444 F.2d 1344, 1348 (2nd Cir. 1971). The two basic facts presented by the defendant's motion are 1) that Judge Sharp had presided and would preside over numerous trials concerning alleged Family members, and 2) that Judge Sharp presided at the defendant's prior trial. The defendant alleged no facts which directly showed Judge Sharp's bias, but relied only on the inference that the intimate connection with the defendant's prior trial and other Family trials would create bias.We have dispatched this type of claim before. In United States v. Dichiarinte, 445 F.2d 126, 132 (7th Cir. 1971), Judge Swygert wrote:The fact that the judge might have formed an opinion concerning the guilt or innocence of the defendant from the evidence presented at an earlier trial involving the same person is not the kind of bias or prejudice which requires disqualification.Accord, Wolfson v. Palmieri, 396 F.2d 121 (2nd Cir. 1968). Similarly, "inferences drawn from prior judicial determinations are insufficient grounds for recusal because it is the duty of the judge to rule upon issues of fact and law and questions of conduct which happen to form a part of the proceedings before him." United States v. Partin, 312 F.Supp. 1355, 1358 (E.D.La.1970). In the Watergate conspiracy trial of Mitchell, Ehrlichman, Colson and others, several defendants moved for the recusal of Chief Judge Sirica, because of his involvement in so many aspects of the Watergate indictments and prosecutions. In a lengthy and well-written opinion, Judge Sirica denied recusal on the ground that the allegations showed only prior judicial actions, and that no "personal" as opposed to "judicial" bias had been alleged. United States v. Mitchell, 377 F.Supp. 1312, 1320 (D.D.C.1974). As Judge Sirica noted id. at 1316, citing Beland v. United States,Try vLex for FREE for 3 days
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