Source: http://openjurist.org/988/f2d/73
Timestamp: 2013-05-24 04:06:24
Document Index: 222597424

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 5861', '§ 922', '§ 922', '§ 3', '§ 5861', '§ 841', '§ 5861', '§ 922', '§ 5861', '§ 922', '§ 922', '§ 5861']

988 F2d 73 United States v. Kurt | OpenJurist
988 F. 2d 73 - United States v. Kurt	Home988 f2d 73 united states v. kurt
988 F2d 73 United States v. Kurt 988 F.2d 73
Nos. 92-30193, 92-30194.
Argued and Submitted Jan. 8, 1993.Decided March 8, 1993.
Kurt appealed from the district court's denial of his motion to dismiss and from its refusal to suppress the evidence obtained as a result of the unsworn testimony. On February 17, 1993, a separate panel of the Ninth Circuit affirmed the validity of the search of Kurt's home in a separate prosecution for counterfeiting and possession of counterfeiting paraphernalia. See U.S. v. Kurt, 986 F.2d 309 (9th Cir.1993). Under the law of the case we affirm the district court's denial of the motion to suppress for this prosecution and consider only the propriety of his conviction.
In U.S. v. Dalton, 960 F.2d 121 (10th Cir.1992), the court vacated a conviction under § 5861(d) on the ground that no constitutional basis for the registration requirements, which were passed for the purpose of aiding the taxing function, existed after the enactment of § 922(o). The court favorably cited United States v. Rock Island Armory, Inc., 773 F.Supp. 117 (C.D.Ill.1991):
We agree with the reasoning in Rock Island Armory that because the registration requirements of the National Firearms Act were passed pursuant to the taxing power, id. at 119, and because after the enactment of section 922(o) the government will no longer register or tax machine guns, id. at 118, section 922(o) has "removed the constitutional legitimacy of registration as an aid to taxation," id. at 125. "Thus, § 922(o) undercuts the constitutional basis of registration which had been the rule since Sonzinsky [v. U.S., 300 U.S. 506, 57 S.Ct. 554, 81 L.Ed. 772 (1937) ].
Because the crimes of which Dalton was convicted have as an essential element his failure to do an act that he is incapable of performing, his fundamental fairness argument is persuasive. Cf. United States v. Spingola, 464 F.2d 909, 911 (7th Cir.1972); 1 W. LaFave & A. Scott, Jr. Substantive Criminal Law § 3.3(c) at 291 (1986) ("one cannot be criminally liable for failing to do an act which he is physically incapable of performing").
In so doing, the court rejected the argument that the gravamen of a section 5861 violation is the act of possession and not the failure to register, relying on Haynes v. United States, 390 U.S. 85, 88 S.Ct. 722, 19 L.Ed.2d 923 (1968) (striking down a conviction under an earlier version of the NFA that made possession of a unregistered firearm and failure to register separate offenses).
Here, unlike in Dalton, the record is devoid of any evidence as to when the machine gun possessed by Dalton was purchased or converted. Since § 5861 could constitutionally be applied to a person who purchased a machine gun prior to May 19, 1986, it was Kurt's burden to show that he was a member of the class arguably unconstitutionally affected by the statute. A defendant cannot claim a statute is unconstitutional in some of its reaches if the statute is constitutional as applied to him. United States v. Raines, 362 U.S. 17, 21-22, 80 S.Ct. 519, 523, 4 L.Ed.2d 524 (1960); United States v. Smith, 818 F.2d 687, 690 (9th Cir.1987); Brache v. County of Westchester, 658 F.2d 47, 51 (2d Cir.1981).
In U.S. v. Zavala-Serra, 853 F.2d 1512 (9th Cir.1988), we rejected the argument that 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(B) violates the equal protection and due process components of the Fifth Amendment by denying parole to an offender without regard to his role in the illegal drug transaction or the purity of the drug involved because the defendant there had failed to show either that he was a minor figure in the conspiracy or that the drug involved was impure. Id. at 1517. So, too, Kurt has failed to make the required showing necessary to challenge the constitutionality of § 5861.
Any subsequent prosecution of Kurt under § 922(o) is barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Under Grady v. Corbin, 495 U.S. 508, 110 S.Ct. 2084, 109 L.Ed.2d 548 (1990), Double Jeopardy bars any prosecution in which the government, to establish an essential element of an offense charged in that prosecution, will prove conduct that constitutes an offense for which the defendant has been prosecuted. Grady, 495 U.S. at 521, 110 S.Ct. at 2093. See also U.S. v. Dalton, 795 F.Supp. 353, 355 (D.Col.1992) (following unsuccessful prosecution under § 5861(d) subsequent prosecution under § 922(o) barred by Fifth Amendment.) A subsequent prosecution of Kurt under § 922(o) would have required the government to prove conduct for which he had already been prosecuted, and thus would be barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause. Accordingly, Kurt could have shown that § 5861(d) was unconstitutional in its application to him without incriminating himself in any way.
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