Opinion ID: 201790
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Validity of a General Verdict

Text: 36 The district court instructed the jury that in order to convict Richardson of perjury on Count One, its members had to agree unanimously that the same false statement or statements amounted to perjury beyond a reasonable doubt. See United States v. Glantz, 847 F.2d 1, 10 (1st Cir.1988) (no error in jury instructions [that] could only be interpreted by the jury to mean that the defendant must be acquitted on the count unless the entire jury believed beyond a reasonable doubt that the appellant was guilty of one specific act of perjury alleged in that count). Because the court submitted the case to the jury for a general verdict instead of a special verdict, it is impossible to know which one or more of the nineteen false statements it found, unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt, to constitute perjury, and which statements (if any) it determined to fall short of that standard when it found Richardson guilty of perjury on Count One. 37 Richardson argues that the jury's guilty verdict must be vacated because at least one of the nineteen alternate grounds submitted by the government is legally insupportable, and the jury's verdict may have rested on such an invalid ground. Richardson acknowledges that, ordinarily, a general jury verdict [is] valid so long as it [is] legally supportable on one of the submitted grounds — even though that [gives] no assurance that a valid ground, rather than an invalid one, was actually the basis for the jury's action. Griffin v. United States, 502 U.S. 46, 49, 112 S.Ct. 466, 116 L.Ed.2d 371 (1991). However, a guilty verdict may rest on an invalid ground either because it is based on evidence that no reasonable person could regard as sufficient, id. at 59, 112 S.Ct. 466, or because it advances a particular theory of conviction . . . [that] is contrary to law, id. While jurors, in a criminal case, are well equipped to analyze the evidence in order to avoid resting a guilty verdict on a factually inadequate theory, they are not generally equipped to determine whether a particular theory of conviction submitted to them is contrary to law.  Id. (emphasis added). Accordingly, where a general verdict may rest on a ground that is invalid because the theory of conviction is contrary to law — as opposed to a ground that is invalid because the evidence supporting it is insufficient as a matter of law — the verdict must be set aside despite the existence of an alternate, legally valid ground of conviction. Id.; see also United States v. Nieves-Burgos, 62 F.3d 431, 434-36 (1st Cir.1995). 38 Richardson argues that at least one of the nineteen false statements alleged in Count One of the indictment advances a legally erroneous theory of perjury, requiring us to vacate her conviction. See United States v. Boots, 80 F.3d 580, 589 (1st Cir.1996) (general verdict that may have been grounded on legally erroneous theory requires setting aside verdict on all grounds), overruled in part by Pasquantino v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 125 S.Ct. 1766, 161 L.Ed.2d 619 (2005); cf. United States v. Lighte, 782 F.2d 367, 377 (2d Cir.1986) (remanding for new trial on one count of perjury alleging multiple false statements without determining whether legal defect resulted from insufficiency of evidence or legally erroneous theory of conviction). We review this question of law de novo. United States v. Ferrario-Pozzi, 368 F.3d 5, 8 (1st Cir.2004). 39