Opinion ID: 750120
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Failure to Charge Properly

Text: 63 Key's first jurisdictional challenge proceeds from a faulty foundation. He points out that, as a limitation on his transfer to federal court, the Act precluded the Government from charging him with conspiracy or aiding and abetting in connection with his drug violations; the Government could only charge him (as it did) with possession of heroin with intent to distribute under 21 U.S.C. § 841. Key claims on appeal that the evidence adduced at trial failed to show that he actually possessed drugs or money, and that the jury must have therefore convicted him of accountability crimes outside the purview of the Act. 64 This ersatz sufficiency challenge is without merit. As discussed earlier, the Government introduced a number of recorded phone conversations into evidence showing Key in possession of drugs or drug proceeds on a consistent basis; many of these calls captured Key asking other members of the conspiracy to bring him more drugs to sell on the street. Key was charged and indicted only on possession charges pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 841; these charges were dependent on a jury finding of direct or constructive possession by Key alone. Furthermore, the Government never presented an accountability theory to the jury and, in fact, suggested that Judge Coar specifically disavow any such notion in the jury instructions. As a result, Judge Coar instructed the jury that it could only convict Key on the relevant possession counts if it could find that he possessed or constructively possessed with the intent to distribute the controlled substances as charged in the indictment. We have no reason to doubt that the jury followed these instructions. See Parker v. Randolph, 442 U.S. 62, 73, 99 S.Ct. 2132, 2139, 60 L.Ed.2d 713 (1979) (noting that [a] critical assumption underlying [the system of trial by jury] is that juries will follow the instructions given them by the trial judge). 65