Opinion ID: 540010
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Relationship Between Subsections (a) and (b) of Section 848.

Text: 233 Flores contends that section 848(a) is a lesser included offense of section 848(b), and that the district court therefore committed reversible error when it refused to charge the jury, as requested by Flores, that it could consider the lesser included offense only if it first acquitted him of the greater. 234 The government contends that section 848(b) is a sentence enhancing provision vis-a-vis section 848(a), and that the premise of Flores' argument is thus undercut. We are inclined, however, to agree with Flores that since section 848(b) requires the jury to find, beyond a reasonable doubt, elements in addition to those stated in section 848(a), section 848(b) resulted in a new offense rather than sentence enhancement. Cf. United States v. Amen, 831 F.2d 373, 381-82 (2d Cir.1987) (by requiring elements of section 848(a) to be proved to jury beyond reasonable doubt, amendment of original bill transformed section 848(a) from sentence enhancement provision to statement of new offense), cert. denied, 485 U.S. 1021, 108 S.Ct. 1573, 99 L.Ed.2d 889 (1988). 235 It would follow that section 848(a) is a lesser included offense of section 848(b). See Fed.R.Crim.P. 31(c). Under these circumstances, United States v. Tsanas, 572 F.2d 340 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 995, 98 S.Ct. 1647, 56 L.Ed.2d 84 (1978), calls for the court to instruct the jury to consider the greater offense first, id. at 344, and then charge either (1) that it should consider the lesser offense only if it unanimously acquitted on the greater, or (2) that it should consider the lesser offense if it could not agree on the greater, id. at 344-46. We added that neither charge was wrong as a matter of law, id. at 346, but that the defendant's preference should be honored upon request. Id. at 346-47. Flores contends that in accord with Tsanas, he sought an instruction that section 848(b) should be considered first, and the jury should move on to section 848(a) only if it were unanimous for acquittal on section 848(b). He further contends that since his request was not honored, his conviction on count four, which charged violation of both subsections (a) and (b) of section 848, must be reversed. 236 The government contends that United States v. Pforzheimer, 826 F.2d 200, 205-06 (2d Cir.1987), United States v. Murray, 618 F.2d 892, 895 n. 3 (2d Cir.1980), and United States v. Stassi, 544 F.2d 579, 583-84 (2d Cir.1976), cert. denied, 430 U.S. 907, 97 S.Ct. 1176, 1177, 51 L.Ed.2d 582 (1977), provide precedent for the procedure followed here: having the jury determine first whether a violation of section 848(a) occurred, and then determine by special interrogatory whether the additional requirements of section 848(b) were satisfied. We are not persuaded. These cases involve the ascertainment of information required for sentencing, and would appear inapplicable where separate offenses, rather than sentence enhancement, are at issue. 237 In any event, we do not believe that any error which may have occurred in the district court's instruction calls for reversal. As the foregoing recital should make clear, this is a difficult and unsettled area of the law. The jury found both that there was a violation of section 848(a), and that the additional requirements of section 848(b) were satisfied, with respect to both Flores and the Torres brothers. We see no problem with the sufficiency of the evidence to support all these determinations, and give little credence to Flores' speculation that if the jury had first considered section 848(b), it might have hung on that count and then, given the Tsanas instruction which Flores unavailingly requested, never reached the section 848(a) count. We have already determined to vacate the convictions under section 848(b) and remand for resentencing of Flores and the Torres brothers under section 848(a). See supra, section B of this Discussion. No further relief is appropriate on this record. 238