Source: https://m.openjurist.org/260/f3d/68/united-states-of-america-v-jay-cohen
Timestamp: 2019-11-15 02:57:47
Document Index: 564436839

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 5', '§ 9', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 991', '§ 1084', '§ 1084']

260 F3d 68 United States of America v. Jay Cohen | OpenJurist
260 F. 3d 68 - United States of America v. Jay Cohen
260 F3d 68 United States of America v. Jay Cohen
260 F.3d 68 (2nd Cir. 2001)
JAY COHEN, Defendant-Appellant.
The Powell Court upheld an appellate court's reversal of the trial court, which had ruled that ignorance of the law was no defense to conspiracy. Id. at 89. In doing so, the Court concluded that a conspiracy offense, by nature, required some form of corrupt motive, even if its underlying substantive offense required only an intent to commit the prohibited act. Id. at 92. The Court stated that "[p]ersons who agree to do an act innocent in itself, in good faith and without the use of criminal means, are not converted into conspirators [] because it turns out that the contemplated act was prohibited by statute." Id.
Although this Court has long expressed its discontent with the Powell doctrine, we have done so in dicta in cases involving conspiracies to commit acts that were not "innocent in themselves." See, e.g., United States v. Mack, 112 F.2d 290, 292 (2d Cir. 1940). In Mack, Judge Learned Hand criticized the Powell doctrine as "anomalous" and questioned "why more proof should be necessary than that the parties had in contemplation all the elements of the crime they are charged with conspiracy to commit." Id. He nevertheless found "'corrupt motive' in abundance" in connection with the defendant's conspiracy to employ unregistered alien prostitutes. Id.; see also United States v. Eisenberg, 596 F.2d 522, 526 (2d Cir. 1979) ("It being clearly established that requisite knowledge was proved for conviction of the substantive offense, it now follows that the same knowledge is enough as well to establish the conspiracy to commit the substantive offense."); Hamburg-American Steam Packet Co. v. United States, 250 F. 747, 759 (2d Cir. 1918) ("[W]e are satisfied that as to the crime of conspiracy,... it is not necessary to show that the defendants who are alleged to have conspired to do an act which is only malum prohibitum had knowledge of the unlawfulness of the act.")
The American Law Institute has expressly rejected Powell in its commentary to the Model Penal Code. See Model Penal Code § 5.03 note on subsec. 1 & cmt. 2(c)(iii) (1985). The Institute noted that the "melodramatic and sinister view of conspiracy" upon which Powell was premised is no longer valid. Id. at cmt. 2(c)(iii). It further observed that Powell now has "little resolving power in particular cases" and instead "serves mainly to divert attention from clear analysis of the mens rea requirements of conspiracy." Id.
A. "Legal" Betting
There can be no dispute that betting is illegal in New York. New York has expressly prohibited betting in both its Constitution, see N.Y. Const. art. I, § 9 ("no... bookmaking, or any other kind of gambling [with certain exceptions pertaining to lotteries and horseracing] shall hereafter be authorized or allowed within this state"), and its General Obligations Law, see N.Y. Gen. Oblig. L. § 5-401 ("[a]ll wagers, bets or stakes, made to depend on any race, or upon any gaming by lot or chance, or upon any lot, chance, casualty, or unknown or contingent event whatever, shall be unlawful"); see also Cohen v. Iuzzini, 270 N.Y.S.2d 278, 279 (App. Div. 1966) (ruling that the predecessor statute to N.Y. Gen. Oblig. L. § 5-401 (N.Y. Penal L. § 991) did not apply to bets executed at recognized pari-mutuel tracks). Nevertheless, Cohen argues that Congress intended for the safe-harbor provision in § 1084(b) to exclude only those transmissions sent to or from jurisdictions in which betting was a crime. Cohen concludes that because the placing of bets is not a crime in New York, it is "legal" for the purposes of § 1084(b).
B. Transmission of a Bet, Per Se
Under Rule 15(a), a trial court may, in its discretion, order the deposition of a witness for use at trial "[w]henever due to exceptional circumstances of the case it is in the interests of justice." Fed. R. Crim P. 15(a). A movant must show that (1) the prospective witness is unavailable for trial, (2) the witness' testimony is material, and (3) the testimony is necessary to prevent a failure of justice. See United States v. Singleton, 460 F.2d 1148, 1154 (2d Cir. 1972).