Source: https://m.openjurist.org/469/us/937
Timestamp: 2020-02-27 11:52:43
Document Index: 79726585

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1059', '§ 952', '§ 952', '§ 5322', '§ 1101', '§ 5316', '§ 103', '§ 952', '§ 1059', '§ 952', '§ 1059', '§ 3237', '§ 3161']

469 US 937 Borchardt v. United States | OpenJurist
469 U.S. 937 - Borchardt v. United States
469 US 937 Borchardt v. United States
469 U.S. 937
105 S.Ct. 341
83 L.Ed.2d 276
Ira Eugene BORCHARDT
In July 1982, shortly after Borchardt's conviction in the Southern District, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas obtained a second indictment relating to the importation conspiracy. Borchardt was charged with two counts of violating the currency laws; these counts represented the two occasions he had smuggled currency into Mexico.1 Specifically, the indictment charged that Borchardt on these two occasions had violated 31 U.S.C. § 1059 (1976 ed.), which proscribed the willful failure to file currency reports when taking money out of the country "where the violation is . . . committed in furtherance of the commission of any other violation of Federal law . . ." (emphasis added).2 The Northern District indictment charged that Borchardt had violated the currency-reporting requirements "in furtherance of . . . the illegal importation of marijuana." 1 Record 10-11.
In the instant case, the Federal Government in the Southern District marshaled an array of evidence to demonstrate that Borchardt had twice smuggled currency out of the country, and it used these episodes along with evidence of other conspiratorial acts to obtain Borchardt's conviction for conspiring to violate, inter alia, 21 U.S.C. § 952(a) (importation of controlled substances). Thereafter, in the Northern District trial, the Government again marshaled its array of evidence to demonstrate again that Borchardt had participated in the two smuggling episodes and that he had done so for the purpose of violating 21 U.S.C. § 952(a). Thus the Government twice prosecuted Borchardt for the identical criminal acts, which in my view was in palpable violation of the Double Jeopardy Clause.3
Even if the conspiracy charges could only have been brought in the Southern District, however, I believe that the Government fundamentally misperceives the relationship between a defendant's venue rights and his double jeopardy rights. The Sixth Amendment guarantees that an accused "shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial . . . [in the] district wherein the crime shall have been committed." Because the venue provision was designed primarily to safeguard a defendant's rights,7 it is one that a defendant may waive in appropriate circumstances. See Singer v. United States, 380 U.S. 24, 35, 85 S.Ct. 783, 790, 13 L.Ed.2d 630 (1965); see also Fed.Rule Crim.Proc. 21(b) ("For the convenience of parties and witnesses, and in the interest of justice, the court upon motion of the defendant may transfer the proceeding as to him or any one or more of the counts thereof to another district").
The Double Jeopardy Clause guarantees that all charges arising out of the same criminal act will be brought both at the same time and in the same proceeding. In some situations the Sixth Amendment's venue safeguards will prevent the Government from bringing all charges in one district, but this should not serve to excuse the Government's obligation under the Fifth Amendment to bring the charges at the same time. The defendant at the very least is entitled to be "informed at one time of all the charges on which he will actually be tried," Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S., at 455 n. 11, 90 S.Ct., at 1200 n. 11. (BRENNAN, J., concurring), so that he has a full opportunity to choose between his right to venue in separate districts and his right to a single trial on all related charges. The Government's alternative argument—that a federal prosecutor may in his own discretion choose to use a defendant's venue rights to defeat the double jeopardy safeguard—lacks any principled foundation. For whether a defendant is tried successively for the same acts in the same judicial district or in separate districts, "[r]epetitive harassment in such a manner goes to the heart of the Fifth Amendment protection." Abbate v. United States, 359 U.S., at 200, 79 S.Ct., at 673 (separate opinion of BRENNAN, J.). Whether they occur in one district or in several districts, repetitious prosecutions for the same acts enable the Government to "wear the accused out by a multitude of cases with accumulated trials." Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319, 328, 58 S.Ct. 149, 153, 82 L.Ed. 288 (1937). Both sorts of prosecutions enable the Government "with all its resources and power . . . to make repeated attempts to convict an individual for an alleged offense, thereby subjecting him to embarrassment, expense and ordeal and compelling him to live in a continuing state of anxiety and insecurity . . . ." Green v. United States, 355 U.S. 184, 187, 78 S.Ct. 221, 223, 2 L.Ed.2d 199 (1957). Both should be subject to equal condemnation under the Double Jeopardy Clause.
Such a rule would not impose undue hardship on federal prosecutors. It would merely require that the Government coordinate its prosecutions of individuals in different districts in such a way that the individuals were not forced to travel from district to district defending against "[r]epetitive harassment," Abbate v. United States, supra, 359 U.S., at 200, 79 S.Ct., at 673 (separate opinion of BRENNAN, J.), for the same criminal acts. Whether it results from an intent to harass, simple caprice, or a breakdown in communications among federal prosecutors, the Government's failure to coordinate its caseload cannot be allowed to undermine a defendant's ability to avoid double jeopardy.
Later in 1982, this provision was amended and recodified at 31 U.S.C. § 5322(b), which now prohibits the willful failure to file the required reports "while violating another law of the United States or as part of a pattern of illegal activity involving transactions of more than $100,000 in a 12-month period . . . ." Borchardt's duty to file a currency report arose from 31 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(1)(A) (1976 ed.), which provided that anyone who knowingly "transports or causes to be transported monetary instruments . . . from any place within the United States to or through any place outside the United States, . . . in an amount exceeding $5,000 on any one occasion" must file a report thereof. This provision has been recodified without substantive change at 31 U.S.C. § 5316. See also 31 CFR § 103.25(b) (1984) (providing for the filing of such reports "with the Customs officer in charge at any Customs port of . . . departure").
A majority of the Court continues to apply the "same evidence" test in determining whether successive prosecutions are constitutional, tempered only by application of the collateral-estoppel doctrine. See, e. g., Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 25 L.Ed.2d 469 (1970). Under this approach, the inquiry "is whether each [statutory] provision requires proof of a fact which the other does not." Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 304, 52 S.Ct. 180, 182, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932). The constitutionality of Borchardt's currency conviction is highly suspect even under this line of analysis. Borchardt was convicted in the Southern District of both importing and conspiring to import marihuana in violation of, inter alia, 21 U.S.C. § 952(a). He thereafter was convicted in the Northern District of violating 31 U.S.C. § 1059 (1976 ed.) on the basis of proof that he (1) willfully failed to file the required currency reports, in furtherance of (2) importing marihuana in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 952(a). The second conviction rested on an element not necessary to the first conviction (willful failure to file reports), but the first conviction did not rest on any elements that the Government did not also have to prove the second time around. "[A] person [who] has been tried and convicted for a crime which has various incidents included in it, . . . cannot be a second time tried for one of those incidents without being twice put in jeopardy for the same offence." In re Nielsen, 131 U.S. 176, 188, 9 S.Ct. 672, 676, 33 L.Ed. 118 (1889). The reverse is of course also true: a person who has been tried for an offense consisting of certain elements cannot thereafter be tried for an offense consisting of the same elements plus others. See, e. g., Illinois v. Vitale, 447 U.S. 410, 421, 100 S.Ct. 2260, 2267, 65 L.Ed.2d 228 (1980); Brown v. Ohio, 432 U.S. 161, 97 S.Ct. 2221, 53 L.Ed.2d 187 (1977).
The Government contends, however, that the "same evidence" test is not met here because the underlying felony required for conviction under 31 U.S.C. § 1059 (1976 ed.) could have been any one of numerous felonies other than the importation of marihuana. "The various elements of the marijuana charges . . . are completely unrelated to the currency reporting offense, which could be established if the related crime were arson, bribery, extortion, fraud, or any number of other crimes." Brief in Opposition 5. We rejected just such a facile construction of felony-murder statutes in Harris v. Oklahoma, 433 U.S. 682, 97 S.Ct. 2912, 53 L.Ed.2d 1054 (1977); see also Illinois v. Vitale, supra, 447 U.S., at 420-421, 100 S.Ct., at 2267, and should do so here as well.
The Government suggests only that it is "doubtful" whether the importation and possession charges arising out of the plane crash could have been brought in the Northern District. Brief in Opposition 5. The record, however, appears to indicate otherwise. Borchardt did not accompany the plane from Mexico, so he never actually possessed marihuana in the Southern District. The Government's case rested instead on constructive possession and importation. As the Fifth Circuit summarized, "Borchardt's participation in the venture in loading the marijuana and the calls to him and his activities after the crash would permit the jury to infer that he had constructive possession of the marijuana." United States v. Borchardt, 698 F.2d 697, 703 (1983) (emphasis added). The record shows that these postcrash activities occurred in the Northern District of Texas. See 1 Record 6. On the Government's own evidence, Borchardt took steps to retain dominion and control over the marihuana while he was in the Northern District, so venue would appear to lie in that District for the continuing-offense possession and importation charges. See, e. g., United States v. Brantley, 733 F.2d 1429, 1433-1435 (CA11 1984); United States v. Brunty, 701 F.2d 1375, 1382 (CA11), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 848, 104 S.Ct. 155, 78 L.Ed.2d 143 (1983). See also 18 U.S.C. § 3237(a) ("[A]ny offense . . . may be inquired of and prosecuted in any district in which such offense was begun, continued, or completed").
It is of course difficult for the Government to coordinate the bringing of charges in different districts with chronometric precision. Delays might result, for example, from backlog, from the differing schedules of grand juries in separate districts, and so forth. Even after two prosecutions are brought, further delays might sometimes be encountered in transferring and consolidating the cases for trial. Some room for reasonable flexibility should therefore be accorded the Government, and in instances of such reasonable delay a defendant might have to postpone his exercise of speedy-trial rights to accommodate the joinder of all offenses against him in a single proceeding. Requiring such accommodation is reasonable. Under the federal Speedy Trial Act, for example, courts may exclude in computing the time within which a trial must commence any delay resulting from, inter alia, "any proceeding relating to the transfer of a case . . . from another district under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure" and any "continuance granted by any judge . . . at the request of the defendant or his counsel." 18 U.S.C. §§ 3161(h)(1)(G), 3161(h)(8)(A). In all instances the inquiry must be whether the delay is reasonable and whether the Government has so coordinated its interdistrict prosecutions as to permit the defendant meaningfully to exercise his right to seek a transfer and joinder of charges in one proceeding.