Opinion ID: 683513
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Jury Instructions and Jury Deliberations

Text: 17 Prior to jury deliberations, the district court gave the following instruction to the jury concerning the overt act element of the conspiracy charge: 18 You may not convict unless you are convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that at least one overt act was knowingly and willfully committed by any one of the conspirators in the Southern District of New York.... 19 .... It is not necessary for you to find that all of the overt acts charged in the indictment were committed. Nor is it necessary for you to find that the defendant participated in any particular overt act. It is sufficient if you find that any one overt act, whether or not that overt act is charged in the indictment, was committed by any conspirator in furtherance of the conspiracy. 20 (Tr. at 1090-91). With regard to the mail fraud counts, the court twice instructed the jury that: 21 All you need find is that one or more of these statements or representations were materially false, in order to satisfy the first element of the crime of mail fraud. You must, however, be unanimous in determining that any one or more of these statements or representations were materially false. 22 (Tr. at 1101-02). At the end of the charge, the court instructed the jury that [t]o report a verdict, it must be unanimous. (Tr. at 1112). Defense counsel did not object to these instructions. 23 During deliberations, the jury sent out a note asking whether all of the overt acts set forth in the indictment had to be proven. The court responded by repeating its instruction that only one overt act need be proven. Defense counsel did not object to the district court's response on this issue. The jury later returned a guilty verdict on all the charged counts, 1 including one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, and ten substantive counts of mail fraud.