Opinion ID: 778180
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Punishment Imposed for the School-Zone Violation

Text: 30 Defendants also challenge the enhanced penalties imposed on them pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 860 for conviction of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute narcotics within 1,000 feet of a school zone. They argue, citing United States v. Ekinci, 101 F.3d 838 (2d Cir.1996), that the penalties set out in § 860(a) are not applicable unless there is a substantive violation of § 841(a), whereas defendants were convicted only of conspiracy to violate § 841(a). We are unpersuaded. 31 Section 860 describes an offense whose pertinent elements are (a) the performance of certain acts that are prohibited by 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), and (b) the proximity of those acts to a school, and it penalizes such an offense severely: 32 Any person who violates section 841(a)(1) ... of this title by distributing, possessing with intent to distribute, or manufacturing a controlled substance in or on, or within one thousand feet of, the real property comprising a public or private elementary, vocational, or secondary school ... is (except as provided in subsection (b) of this section) subject to (1) twice the maximum punishment authorized by section 841(b) of this title; and (2) at least twice any term of supervised release authorized by section 841(b) of this title for a first offense. 33 21 U.S.C. § 860(a). Subsection (b) of § 860 provides penalties of even greater severity for second and successive § 860(a) offenders. In United States v. Ekinci, the § 860 count of the indictment charged that the defendant physician, within 1,000 feet of a school, had distributed, possessed with intent to distribute, and dispensed a controlled substance in violation of § 841(a)(1). The jury found him guilty, but its verdict was ambiguous as to which of those acts-distributing, possessing, or dispensing-it found he had performed. We noted that the § 841(a) actions referred to in § 860 include distributing and possessing with intent to distribute, but do not include dispensing; and we concluded that the enhanced penalty provided by § 860 could not be applied because the jury might have found the defendant guilty only of dispensing. See United States v. Ekinci, 101 F.3d at 839-41. 34 Ekinci is not applicable here, for count two of the superseding indictment in the present case did not mention dispensing. Count two here mentioned only conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute, both of which acts are listed in both §§ 841(a) and 860. Hence the verdict in the present case was not ambiguous, for the jury could not have found that a defendant performed an act that was prohibited in § 841(a) but not in § 860. In sum, unlike in Ekinci, the guilty verdict did not leave open the possibility that a defendant had engaged in conduct for which a § 860 sentence enhancement is not authorized. 35 Nor was the sentence unauthorized simply because the defendants were not convicted of substantive offenses. The conspiracy section of Title 21 provides that 36 [a]ny person who attempts or conspires to commit any offense defined in this subchapter shall be subject to the same penalties as those prescribed for the offense, the commission of which was the object of the attempt or conspiracy. 37 21 U.S.C. § 846. Since count two of the superseding indictment alleged that the object of defendants' conspiracy was distribution of, and possession with intent to distribute, narcotics within 1,000 feet of an elementary school in violation of § 860, the penalty for the conspiracy alleged in count two was the same as the penalty prescribed for a substantive violation of § 860. We see no error in the imposition of the § 860 penalties. 38