Opinion ID: 654601
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: United States v. Holley and the Multiple Offenses Approach

Text: 49 Contrary to the arguments of both Correa and the government, we do not find either Schad or Gipson to control the outcome of this case. Both involved statutes where the respective legislatures had set forth particular alternatives for satisfying a given element of a statutorily defined crime. The specific issue in both was whether differences between jurors as to which of the statutorily enumerated means was used to commit the same crime were Constitutionally permissible. 16 This case, by contrast, does not present an election between statutory means; instead, the issue is one of pure unanimity. 17 We are not faced with statutory alternatives to meeting a given element of a 924(c) offense, but rather whether the firearm component of the crime requires factual concurrence. This court, in United States v. Holley, 942 F.2d 916 (5th Cir.1991), appropriately distinguished Schad from a pure unanimity situation similar to the one presented as follows:In Schad, there was a single killing of one individual, and Justice Souter, stressing that under Arizona law first degree murder was a single crime, concluded that there was no more need for jury unanimity as to alternative mental states, each satisfying the mens rea element of the offense, than there was for the jurors to all agree on the precise means employed to cause death. This differs, however, from the situation where a single count, as submitted to the jury embraces two or more separate offenses, though each be a violation of the same statute. 50 942 F.2d at 927 (emphasis added). In other words, Schad involved alternative statutory means for committing one offense; Holley, on the other hand, involved distinct instances of the same crime which could have resulted in potentially multiple convictions. 51 In Holley, the defendant was convicted of two counts of perjury in connection with his deposition testimony in an adversary personal bankruptcy proceeding. For each count, however, the indictment alleged multiple statements, each of which would have constituted a separate violation of the perjury statute. Id. at 927-28. Cf.Bins v. United States, 331 F.2d 390, 393 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 379 U.S. 880, 85 S.Ct. 149, 13 L.Ed.2d 87 (1964) (where false statements made on two separate loan applications, filing of each false document would constitute a separate crime). The trial court rejected a jury instruction to the effect that the jury must be unanimous as to at least one statement in each count. Holley, 942 F.2d at 922. This court held that the counts alleging multiple instances of perjury were in fact, separate offenses, and consequently the indictment was duplicitous. 18 Id. at 928-29. To cure the duplicity, the district court was required to give the jury Holley's tendered instruction on specific unanimity. Id. at 929. Its failure to do so was reversible error. Id. 52 Holley would appear to counsel that unanimity is closely related to the issue of duplicity--i.e., that a specific unanimity instruction may be required where two separate offenses are included in the same count. AccordUnited States v. Baytank, Inc., 934 F.2d 599, 609-10 (5th Cir.1991) (suggesting that unanimity may be at issue only if the count is duplicitous). It is true that the concern under either procedural posture is the same--the jury should not be permitted to evaluate separate and distinct offenses about which they may disagree in rendering a patchwork guilty verdict: 53 The vice of duplicity is that there is no way in which the jury can convict of one offense and acquit of another offense contained in the same count. A general verdict of guilty will not reveal whether the jury found the defendant guilty of one crime and not guilty of the others, or guilty of all. It is conceivable that this could prejudice [the] defendant in sentencing, in obtaining appellate review, and in protecting himself against double jeopardy. 54 1 CHARLES A. WRIGHT, FEDERAL PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE: CRIMINAL 2D Sec. 142 at 475 (1982) (citations omitted). 55 Although the cases analyzing duplicity may be helpful, defining unanimity in terms of separate offenses or separate crimes would result in an unworkable brightline test. Moreover, the issues of duplicity and unanimity are evaluated at different procedural stages of the criminal proceedings--duplicity is generally reviewed during the pretrial phase, whereas unanimity must be determined after all the evidence has been introduced at trial. For this reason, the inquiry as to whether offenses are distinct for purposes of duplicity is not identical to the analysis employed in determining whether the actions charged are so dissimilar that unanimity is required. As this court noted in Holley, [c]ourts rejecting duplicity challenges to multiple-predicate counts often premise their rulings on the condition that later augmented jury instructions will adequately protect the defendant against the risk of an ununanimous verdict. Id. at 928 n. 14 (quoting Duncan, 850 F.2d at 1108 n. 4). Nonetheless, mindful of these distinctions, we find the cases involving duplicity to be somewhat instructive for determining whether factual concurrence is required in a given case.