Opinion ID: 200295
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Alleged Instructional Error.

Text: 41 The appellant's remaining claim relates solely to his conviction on count 2 of the indictment. To prove a violation of the statute of conviction, 18 U.S.C. § 1029(a)(3), the government must show that a defendant knowingly and with intent to defraud possesse[d] fifteen or more... counterfeit or unauthorized access devices. In this case, the appellant asked the district court to instruct the jurors that they had to agree on which fifteen devices (i.e., credit cards) were in his possession. The court refused to do so (although it did grant the appellant's request for a supplemental instruction that required jury unanimity as to which cards were unauthorized). The appellant interposed a timely objection, see Fed.R.Crim.P. 30(d), and now assigns error to the trial court's refusal of the desired instruction. 42 A party's entitlement to a unanimity instruction presents a question of law. Consequently, the district court's answer to that question engenders de novo review. United States v. Pitrone, 115 F.3d 1, 4 (1st Cir.1997). 43 The requirement that a federal jury be unanimous is a bedrock principle of our criminal jurisprudence. See Richardson v. United States, 526 U.S. 813, 817, 119 S.Ct. 1707, 143 L.Ed.2d 985 (1999); Schad v. Arizona, 501 U.S. 624, 634 n. 5, 111 S.Ct. 2491, 115 L.Ed.2d 555 (1991); see generally United States v. Correa-Ventura, 6 F.3d 1070, 1076-82 (5th Cir.1993) (providing an extensive discussion of the unanimity requirement). The principle is rooted in the Due Process Clause, U.S. Const. amend. V, and memorialized in Fed. R.Crim.P. 31(a). 44 The unanimity requirement does not impose a rule that all twelve jurors in a federal criminal case must agree on every last detail. Sovereigns define crimes by enumerating their factual elements, and the unanimity requirement attaches to those elements. See Richardson, 526 U.S. at 817, 119 S.Ct. 1707; Johnson v. Louisiana, 406 U.S. 366, 369-71, 92 S.Ct. 1635, 32 L.Ed.2d 162 (1972) (Powell, J., concurring). To that extent — and only to that extent — unanimity is an indispensable condition precedent to a conviction. As Justice Blackmun once wrote, different jurors may be persuaded by different pieces of evidence, even when they agree upon the bottom line. Plainly there is no general requirement that the jury reach agreement on the preliminary factual issues which underlie the verdict. McKoy v. N. Carolina, 494 U.S. 433, 449, 110 S.Ct. 1227, 108 L.Ed.2d 369 (1990) (Blackmun, J., concurring). Thus, if a jury is confronted with divergent factual theories in support of the same ultimate issue, courts generally have held that the unanimity requirement is met as long as the jurors are in agreement on the ultimate issue (even though they may not be unanimous as to the precise theory). See Richardson, 526 U.S. at 817, 119 S.Ct. 1707; Schad, 501 U.S. at 631-32, 111 S.Ct. 2491; United States v. Hernandez-Albino, 177 F.3d 33, 40 (1st Cir.1999). 45 At this level of generality, the unanimity requirement serves several salutary purposes. For one thing, it helps to ensure that no defendant will be convicted unless the government has carried its burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. See Correa-Ventura, 6 F.3d at 1076-77. For another thing, it functions as a corollary of due process rules against duplicity. See United States v. Verrecchia, 196 F.3d 294, 297 (1st Cir.1999). Finally, it serves to protect defendants against the vagueness and imprecision that haunt some criminal statutes. See Schad, 501 U.S. at 632-33, 111 S.Ct. 2491; United States v. Edmonds, 80 F.3d 810, 819 (3d Cir.1996). 46 Withal, the unanimity requirement is more easily stated than applied. The question is one of degree — and the devil is in the details. Due process demands that a jury must come to agreement on the principal facts underlying its verdict — what courts have tended to call the elements of the offense. But that requirement does not extend to subsidiary facts — what the Richardson Court has called brute facts. Richardson, 526 U.S. at 817-18, 119 S.Ct. 1707; accord Schad, 501 U.S. at 632, 111 S.Ct. 2491. There is no well defined roadmap to follow in separating the wheat (the elements of an offense) from the chaff (the brute facts that constitute those elements). Rather, we must navigate this course by using guideposts that emanate from a distillate of the concept of due process with its demands for fundamental fairness. Schad, 501 U.S. at 637, 111 S.Ct. 2491. 47 It is thus apparent that, to resolve this dilemma, an inquiring court must distinguish the elements of a charged offense from the brute facts that constitute those elements, mindful that the unanimity requirement attaches only to the former and not to the latter. Richardson, 526 U.S. at 817-18, 119 S.Ct. 1707. This taxonomy has important ramifications for the criminal justice system. On the one hand, requiring unanimity on relatively minor details will hamstring the government's ability to prosecute crimes and encourage hung juries. On the other hand, leaving jurors free to convict despite disagreements about critical facts will imperil the integrity of the reasonable doubt standard. 48 Against this backdrop, we return to the case at hand. Here, the district court gave a general instruction on unanimity. It required the jury, in effect, to agree that the appellant possessed fifteen or more unauthorized credit cards without requiring agreement as to the identity of those fifteen cards. The pivotal question, therefore, is whether the unanimity requirement extends to which fifteen credit cards the appellant possessed. The answer to this question depends on whether the identity of the credit cards that the appellant possessed is a fact strictly necessary to define the conduct prohibited under the statute of conviction. See Schad, 501 U.S. at 630-31, 111 S.Ct. 2491; United States v. Jackson, 879 F.2d 85, 88-89 (3d Cir.1989). In other words, is the identity of the particular fifteen credit cards an element of the offense or merely a fact used to prove an element? 4 49 Ascertainment of the level at which unanimity is required in order to convict a defendant of a particular crime tends to be offense-specific. See Richardson, 526 U.S. at 817-18, 119 S.Ct. 1707; Correa-Ventura, 6 F.3d at 1081. Thus, a determination of the extent to which jury unanimity is required begins — and sometimes ends — with the text of the statute of conviction. See Richardson, 526 U.S. at 818, 119 S.Ct. 1707. Where, as here, the text does not furnish decisive guidance, an inquiring court must comb the statutory language for clues, consider relevant legal traditions, look at the overall structure of the law, examine the statute's legislative history, and mull the implications for unfairness (if any) associated with the absence of a specific unanimity requirement. See id. at 819-20, 119 S.Ct. 1707; Schad, 501 U.S. at 637-38, 111 S.Ct. 2491. 50 The preeminent clues that infiltrate the language of 18 U.S.C. § 1029(a)(3) are derived from the statute's narrow compass and its relative specificity. The statute identifies facts necessary to ground a conviction — possession of fifteen or more counterfeit or unauthorized access devices — with considerable precision and channels jury deliberations within well delineated confines. These features distinguish section 1029(a)(3) from 21 U.S.C. § 848 (the statute at issue in Richardson ). The latter statute criminalizes the conduct of a continuing criminal enterprise (CCE) and, in so doing, uses as a jumping-off point the commission of any series of included felonies (out of numerous possible choices). 51 The Richardson Court found that the broad and non-specific nature of section 848 — a statute that lists approximately ninety numbered sections of the federal criminal code as potential serial offenses — engenders an unacceptable risk of juror disagreement as to which series of violations a defendant actually had committed. 526 U.S. at 819, 119 S.Ct. 1707. This risk is magnified because the statute fails to channel jury deliberations toward a specific set of circumstances, thus creating a danger that a jury might convict a defendant unfairly on the basis of his bad reputation alone. Id. To allay these risks, the Court imposed a requirement of jury unanimity as to which continuing series of violations a defendant actually committed. Id. at 824. 52 Section 1029(a)(3) does not pose either the same type or degree of risk. While the CCE statute is broad and non-specific, section 1029(a)(3) is narrow and specific. Its precise account of the facts necessary to ground a conviction means that jurors, even without a particularized unanimity instruction, are hardly likely to convict if they cannot reach agreement as to the principal factual elements referable to a given charge. See McKoy, 494 U.S. at 449 n. 5, 110 S.Ct. 1227 (Blackmun, J., concurring) (collecting cases); cf. Verrecchia, 196 F.3d at 301 (suggesting that when the issue is possession vel non of a specific type of contraband, the potential for juror disagreement is mitigated). Moreover, section 1029(a)(3), unlike the CCE statute, channels jury deliberations toward a particular set of circumstances. A jury dealing with such a statute is unlikely to convict out of a belief that the defendant was doing some non-specific (but obviously bad) act. 53 History and tradition also help to distinguish section 1029(a)(3) from the CCE statute. The term violation, used in the CCE statute, always has had independent legal significance; thus, whether certain conduct amounts to a violation is a matter that typically requires jury unanimity. See Richardson, 526 U.S. at 818-19, 119 S.Ct. 1707; Edmonds, 80 F.3d at 822. In contrast, the phrase fifteen or more, used in section 1029(a)(3), has no independent legal significance. That phrase simply refers to the nature of the proscribed possession. Consequently, it evokes no similar tradition of jury unanimity. 54 In these respects, section 1029(a)(3) is very different from the CCE statute. The more apt comparison is between section 1029(a)(3) and 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) (the statute at issue in Verrecchia ). Section 922(g)(1) criminalizes the possession of any firearm by a previously convicted felon. Id. The district court failed to give an instruction requiring jury unanimity as to which firearm the defendant allegedly possessed. Verrecchia, 196 F.3d at 296-97. On plain error review we approved this omission, reasoning that jurors who agreed that the defendant possessed a firearm but disagreed as to which firearm he possessed nonetheless would be unanimous on the relevant element of the offense: possession of any firearm. Id. at 299. So it is here. Jurors who agreed that the appellant possessed fifteen unauthorized credit cards but disagreed as to which fifteen nonetheless would be unanimous on the relevant element of the offense: possession of fifteen or more ... devices. The use of non-specific terms such as any or or more indicates that Congress's emphasis was not on the identity of the actual items (whether firearms or credit cards), but, rather, on the possession thereof. See id. 55 An examination of the structure of section 1029 fortifies our belief that the identity of the particular credit cards should not be deemed an element of the offense. That global view leaves a clear impression that Congress intended to target fraudulent access crimes of a particular scope, such as those surpassing certain value thresholds, see, e.g., 18 U.S.C. § 1029(a)(5) (criminalizing the knowing use of one or more access devices, with intent to defraud, in order to receive more than $1,000 in a one-year period), or those involving technologies fraudulently used to produce or verify access devices, see, e.g., id. § 1029(a)(4) (criminalizing the possession, production, or use of device-making equipment). The graduated penalty provisions of section 1029, see id. § 1029(c), also are consistent with a focus on the scope of the fraudulent conduct. 5 This emphasis on scope indicates that Congress most likely regarded the number of unauthorized credit cards — fifteen or more — rather than their identity as the relevant element of the offense. Cf. Verrecchia, 196 F.3d at 299-300 (requiring no unanimity as to which firearm defendant possessed because the statutory focus lies elsewhere). 56 The strength of this conclusion is not attenuated by the fact that Congress sought to link culpability to both the nature and number of associated devices through extensive definitions as to what constitutes counterfeit or unauthorized devices. See, e.g., 18 U.S.C. § 1029(e)(1)-(3). The statute provides no detail as to how these devices must be possessed. See id. § 1029(e). By the same token, it does not otherwise supply a reason why a jury should be required to agree on exactly which fifteen cards a defendant possessed. These are strong indications that the identity of the credit cards was not meant to be an element of the offense. See Verrecchia, 196 F.3d at 300-01 (undertaking the same type of analysis, and reaching the same conclusion, with respect to the felon-in-possession statute). 57 The legislative history of section 1029(a) further buttresses our intuition that section 1029 focuses on the scope of the crime of possession as a whole, as opposed to focusing on each act of possession comprised within that whole. Enacted to augment the Consumer Credit Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1644, and the Electronic Funds Transfer Act, id. § 1693n(b), in combating increasingly sophisticated types of fraudulent practices, section 1029 expanded the armamentarium available to federal law enforcement authorities by criminalizing the mere possession of counterfeit or unauthorized access devices. See H.R.Rep. No. 98-894, at 5 (1984), reprinted in 1984 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3182, 3691; see also Theresa L. Kruk, Annotation, What Constitutes Violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 1029, Prohibiting Fraud or Related Activity in Connection with Credit Card or Other Credit Access Device, 115 A.L.R. Fed. 213, 1993 WL 837851 (1993). Congress incorporated the fifteen or more minimum and the $1,000 monetary threshold as jurisdictional elements, presumably in order to ensure that the weight of the federal government would be brought to bear on more sophisticated and largerscale fraudulent schemes (where federal resources can best supplement state and local law enforcement efforts). See H.R. Rep. 98-894, supra, at 5, reprinted in 1984 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 3691. These factors suggest that the identity of the particular fifteen or more credit cards is not an element of the offense described in section 1029(a)(3), but, rather, encompasses brute facts incident to that offense. 58 In an endeavor to refute this suggestion, the appellant refers us to a line of cases holding that access devices possessed over different periods of time cannot be aggregated to meet the numerical requirement of section 1029(a)(3). See, e.g., United States v. Powell, 973 F.2d 885, 890 (10th Cir.1992); United States v. Russell, 908 F.2d 405, 406-07 (8th Cir.1990). Far from subverting our conclusion, these decisions simply illustrate that the phrase fifteen or more ... devices defines the scope of a single crime; given the indications we have noted, that phrase cannot coherently be read as an attempt to aggregate separate crimes. Thus, Powell and Russell confirm a part of our basic premise: the statute of conviction targets crimes of a certain scope. In other words, the crime defined by 18 U.S.C. § 1029(a)(3) is not fifteen acts of possessing an unauthorized credit card, but, rather, a single act of possession of fifteen such devices. 59 A comparison of section 1029(a)(3) with other statutes of similar structure bolsters this conclusion. Typically, statutory elements that require a jury to find a specific quantity of a substance or thing do not demand unanimity as to which items make up that quantity. See, e.g., United States v. Kayode, 254 F.3d 204, 214 (D.C.Cir.2001) (refusing to require unanimity, in a prosecution under 18 U.S.C. § 1028(a)(3), as to which five or more identification documents a defendant possessed); United States v. Nicolaou, 180 F.3d 565, 571-72 (4th Cir.1999) (refusing to require unanimity, in a prosecution under 18 U.S.C. § 1955(b)(1)(ii), as to which five or more persons participated in an illegal gambling business). Indeed, Richardson helps to prove this point. Although the Court demanded unanimity as to which predicate offenses the defendant committed, it suggested that, as to a different aspect of the CCE statute, 21 U.S.C. § 848(c)(2)(A), unanimity might not be required as to which five or more other persons the defendant supervised. See Richardson, 526 U.S. at 824, 119 S.Ct. 1707. In this regard, the Court noted that the language, breadth, and tradition of the two factual requirements differed significantly. See id.; see also id. at 829, 119 S.Ct. 1707 (Kennedy, J., dissenting); United States v. Tarvers, 833 F.2d 1068, 1074-75 (1st Cir.1987) (holding expressly that, in a prosecution under 21 U.S.C. § 848, unanimity is not required as to the identity of the persons supervised). 60 Finally, we note that potential juror disagreement on the identity of the credit cards possessed does not risk serious unfairness in contravention of a defendant's constitutional rights. As the structure and legislative history of section 1029 evince, the statute targets fraudulent ventures of a certain size and scope. This emphasis might, in some circumstances, increase the chance of an unfair conviction in the absence of a specific unanimity requirement. See Richardson, 526 U.S. at 819, 119 S.Ct. 1707; Verrecchia, 196 F.3d at 301. Here, however, the statute's language is very precise as to the factual basis of the proscribed conduct. This precision, in turn, commands consensus on a number of important facts directly linked to the culpability of a defendant's conduct. That feature significantly mitigates the risk of substantial jury disagreement. See United States v. Davis, 306 F.3d 398, 414 (6th Cir.2002) (refusing to require unanimity on the means by which a defendant violated the aiding and abetting statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2, because of the statute's finite terms); Verrecchia, 196 F.3d at 301 (concluding that the precision of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) reduces the potential for unfairness and, thus, reduces the need for a specific unanimity requirement). Consequently, we do not believe that the absence of a unanimity instruction anent the identity of the devices possessed has adverse implications for the fairness of potential convictions under 18 U.S.C. § 1029(a)(3). 61 We need go no further. Having completed our canvass of the appropriate points of reference, we conclude that the identity of the particular devices possessed by a defendant is not an element necessary to prove the culpable act of possession under 18 U.S.C. § 1029(a)(3). Accordingly, that statute does not require a jury, as a condition precedent to conviction, to reach unanimous agreement as to which access devices a defendant possessed. It follows inexorably that the district court did not err in refusing to give the instruction sought by the appellant. 62 Affirmed.