Opinion ID: 779593
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The special verdict for quantity of marijuana.

Text: 48 Lowe claims the district court abused its discretion when it asked the jury to determine the amount of marijuana by range rather than specifying an exact amount. Decisions by the district court regarding jury instructions are reviewed for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Reed, 227 F.3d 763, 770-71 (7th Cir. 2000). However, when the instructions are based on an error of law, we review de novo. Savino v. C.P. Hall Co., 199 F.3d 925, 934 (7th Cir.1999) (stating that jury instructions are reviewed de novo to determine whether they provide fair and accurate summaries of the law). 49 Here, the district court, at the request of the government, provided jury instructions and verdict forms that required the jury to make special findings regarding the quantity of marijuana involved in the conspiracy count. This procedure is a byproduct of Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), which held that any fact (other than prior conviction) that increases the maximum penalty for a crime must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. at 476, 120 S.Ct. 2348. Because § 841(b) specifies four ranges of drug amounts that carry four different statutory maximum sentences, see note 4, supra, this court has mandated that the trier of fact must be instructed to find, both the elements of the offense, as listed in § 841(a), and the drug amounts listed in § 841(b) that the prosecutor relies on to establish the maximum [statutory] penalty. United States v. Trennell, 290 F.3d 881, 887 (7th Cir.2002); see also United States v. Rodgers, 245 F.3d 961, 965 (7th Cir.2001) (In the wake of Apprendi, it is clear that any finding as to a drug quantity that has the effect of increasing the statutory maximum prison term must be charged and submitted to the jury.). 50 While we believe that the district court's jury instructions complied with the requirements of Apprendi, the critique presented here is slightly different. Lowe claims that the quantity of drugs involved, under § 841(b)(1). is an element of the offense, and as such, the jury must unanimously agree on the precise amount of the drugs at issue. Lowe claims that the district court impermissibly provided in its instructions four ranges of drug amounts, which correspond to the four subsections of § 841(b)(1). Lowe argues that the district court erred when it rejected his special verdict form requiring the jury to agree on the specific amount of marijuana Lowe conspired to possess. According to Lowe, the jury could have been divided over the occurrence of particular transactions involving different quantities of drugs. The jury instructions regarding range rather than specific drug amounts could have therefore resulted in a compromise verdict, with the jury divided over which transactions formed the basis of the conviction. 51 Although Lowe does not frame his argument in this way, he is essentially trying to advance two related, but ultimately discrete, legal theses: (1) that drug quantity is an element of a § 841 offense, and (2) that the jury must unanimously agree on the precise amount of drugs, rather than a range. 52 In this circuit, the answer to the first question is clear. Drug quantity is not an element of a § 841 drug offense. See, e.g., United States v. Trennell, 290 F.3d 881, 887 (7th Cir.2002) (stating that drug quantity is not an element of the offense under § 841); United States v. Bjorkman, 270 F.3d 482, 490-91 (7th Cir. 2001) (same); United States v. Brough, 243 F.3d 1078, 1080 (7th Cir.2001) (same). An element of a criminal offense is ultimately a fact that must be charged in an indictment and proven beyond a reasonable doubt to support a conviction. See Bjorkman, 270 F.3d at 492; see also Richardson v. United States, 526 U.S. 813, 817, 119 S.Ct. 1707, 143 L.Ed.2d 985 (1999) (Calling a particular kind of fact an `element' carries certain legal consequences.... [A] jury in a federal criminal case cannot convict unless it unanimously finds that the Government has proved each element.) (citation omitted). However, in the instance of § 841, if the jury instructions do not adequately address the amount of drugs the defendant conspired to possess with the intent to distribute, Apprendi limits the sentencing court to a period of incarceration at or below the default statutory maximum. See United States v. Mietus, 237 F.3d 866, 874 (7th Cir.2001) (holding that Apprendi limited sentencing court to the default statutory maximum of five years, 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(D), when jury was instructed only to find whether the defendant possessed and conspired to possess a measurable amount of marijuana); United States v. Westmoreland, 240 F.3d 618, 632 (7th Cir.2001) (same). If drug amount were a true element of § 841, then a failure by the jury to agree on the drug amount would mean that there is no offense at all. Bjorkman, 270 F.3d at 492 (emphasis in original). 53 Lowe's second argument regarding range is integrally tied in with the requirements of Apprendi. In the present case, the indictment specified an amount of marijuana in the vicinity of 1200 kilograms. In addition, the special verdict revealed that the jury unanimously agreed that Lowe conspired to possess with the intent to distribute more than 50 kilograms of marijuana, but less than 100 kilograms of marijuana. The statutory maximum sentence for this quantity of drugs is 20 years. See 18 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(C). We do not believe that, under Apprendi, the district court was required to take the additional step of asking the jury to return a specific finding of drug amount, which would ostensibly reflect the jury's agreement on the occurrence of specific drug transactions. 54 In this context, we believe that a precise drug amount in relation to a statutory range is analogous to the circumstance in which the jury unanimously agrees on the presence of a particular element but disagrees as to the method or means by which it arose. For example, in Richardson, the Court observed that a federal jury need not always decide unanimously which of several possible sets of underlying brute facts make up a particular element. 526 U.S. at 817, 119 S.Ct. 1707. The Court then provided the following lucid example: 55 Where, for example, an element of robbery is force or the threat of force, some jurors might conclude that the defendant used a knife to create the threat of force; others might conclude that he used a gun. But that disagreement—a disagreement about means—would not matter as long as all 12 jurors unanimously concluded that the Government had proved the necessary related element, namely, that the defendant had threatened force. 56 Id. 57 If a simple robbery conviction can brook a modicum of disagreement as to means or method by which force was applied or threatened, so too can a conviction on a federal drug conspiracy that involved two defendants and numerous alleged transactions over a period of four years allow for some disagreement over the particular transactions that the conspiracy encompassed. Further, a ruling to the contrary would inevitably hamstring the government in its ability to effectively prosecute more complex drug conspiracies in which the alleged wrongdoings span decades and include thousands of discrete drug transactions. See, e.g., United States v. Patterson, 215 F.3d 776, 778 (7th Cir.2000) (fifteen defendants in a decade-long conspiracy that grossed $40,000 a day), vacated in part, 531 U.S. 1033, 121 S.Ct. 621, 148 L.Ed.2d 531 (2000); United States v. Boyd, 208 F.3d 638, 640-41 (7th Cir. 2000) (five defendants in a continuing and wide-ranging [narcotics] conspiracy reaching back to the mid-1960s), vacated, 531 U.S. 1135, 121 S.Ct. 1072, 148 L.Ed.2d 949 (2001). 58 In any event, Lowe's logic is fundamentally flawed in advancing the proposition that jury agreement on a specific amount of drugs would necessarily guarantee jury agreement about the particular transactions encompassed by the conspiracy. Juror A might be convinced of the occurrence of Transaction M, involving 2 kilos, Transaction N, involving 3 kilos and Transaction O, involving 4 kilos, for a total of 9 kilos. Juror B, on the other hand, might have in mind Transaction P, involving 5 kilos and Transaction O, involving 4 kilos, again for a total of 9 kilos. That in each case the specific amount of drugs totaled 9 kilos would not assure jury unanimity on the specific transactions supporting the conviction. For all the reasons stated above, we hold that the district court's special verdict form, reflecting ranges of drug amounts under § 841(b)(1), was in accordance with law and not an abuse of discretion. 59