Opinion ID: 545466
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: An Appropriate Instruction

Text: 34 While we agree with the appellants that the instructions given on the Travel Act charges were ambiguous and misleading, we conclude that there are also problems with the alternative instruction that the appellants urged upon the district court and press here. The so-called Sand instruction, drawn from 2 L. SAND, J. SIFFERT, W. LOUGHLIN & S. REISS, MODERN FEDERAL JURY INSTRUCTIONS (CRIMINAL).S.App.D.C. 300>>FERT, W. LOUGHLIN & S. REISS, MODERN FEDERAL JURY INSTRUCTIONS (CRIMINAL) p 60-10 (1988), reads: 35 The defendant has been charged with traveling in interstate commerce (or using an interstate facility) to facilitate [prostitution]. The government must prove to you beyond a reasonable doubt that the activities the defendant intended to facilitate were, in fact, unlawful under [Maryland's, Virginia's, or the District of Columbia's prostitution law.] In order to prove this, the government must prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, each of the following elements of the offense of [prostitution] under [Maryland, Virginia, or District of Columbia] law. 36 The Government correctly points out that this instruction seems to require that the jury find a completed violation of the underlying state offense in order to convict under the Travel Act. While a defendant must have intended to facilitate each element of the offense, the Government does not have to show that he or she actually violated the state law. The language of the Travel Act makes it clear that a person can violate that law merely by attempt[ing] to perform a specified unlawful activity, such as operating a prostitution business, assuming he or she has the requisite intent with regard to each element of that underlying offense. 37 A proper instruction would make it clear to the jury that in order to convict, they must find that the defendant specifically intended to promote (et cetera) an activity that involves all of the elements of the relevant state offense. Such an instruction would inform the jury that the defendant must have performed or attempted to perform an act in furtherance of the business, with the intent that each element of the underlying state crime be completed, but that they need not conclude that each was in fact completed. 38 The instruction suggested in the commentary to Sec. 62.01 of 2 S. SALTZBURG & H. PERLMAN, FEDERAL CRIMINAL JURY INSTRUCTIONS (1985), meets these specifications. That commentary suggests that a Travel Act instruction need not actually use or define the term unlawful activity, and that it need not inform the jury that the defendant is charged with traveling to promote prostitution in violation of the law of a particular state. Instead, the authors suggest that the court explain the elements of the indictment directly in terms of the underlying state law allegedly violated. Thus, the court would first decide whether the business activity that the defendant is charged with intending to promote is in fact prohibited by the relevant State's law. If so, then the court would instruct the jury that it must find that the defendant specifically intended to promote (et cetera) each feature of the activity that is necessary to make it unlawful under that law. 39 Thus, the Saltzburg and Perlman commentary properly requires the Government to prove that the defendant (1) used a facility of interstate commerce with the intent to distribute the proceeds of, or to promote (et cetera), the unlawful activity, and (2) thereafter promoted or attempted to promote, the unlawful activity, but avoids giving the possible misimpression that the state law offense must have been completed. At the same time this approach fully incorporates the elements of the relevant state law offense into the definition of the Travel Act violation.