Opinion ID: 430531
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: There was Sufficient Evidence for the Jury to Convict the Defendants

Text: 49 Defendant Carabbia argues that there was insufficient evidence to show that defendants agreed to participate in the affairs of the enterprise. We find this claim to be wholly without merit, as the summary of facts recited above--taken from testimony introduced at trial--demonstrates. 50 Defendant Liberatore argues that there was insufficient evidence to establish that he and Ciarcia bribed Ms. Rabinowitz to provide them with confidential FBI information and documents. This Court dealt fully with this question and resolved it against Liberatore in United States v. Lanci and Liberatore, 669 F.2d 391, 393 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 457 U.S. 1134, 102 S.Ct. 2960, 73 L.Ed.2d 1350 (1982), and we will not consider it further here. 51 VII. Principles of Double Jeopardy Did Not Bar the Government from Using Bribery as a Predicate Offense for the RICO Convictions 52 Defendants Liberatore and Ciarcia were convicted in federal court of bribing Ms. Rabinowitz. This bribery offense was also used as a predicate act for the RICO convictions of these two defendants. Liberatore and Ciarcia now claim that use of the bribery offense in the RICO prosecution violated the double jeopardy clause of the fifth amendment. 53 The Supreme Court articulated the analysis to be applied to statutory schemes in order to evaluate them for double jeopardy purposes in Whalen v. United States, 445 U.S. 684, 100 S.Ct. 1432, 63 L.Ed.2d 715 (1980). First, courts should apply the Blockburger test articulated in Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932), in order to determine whether the same act constitutes a violation of two distinct statutory provisions. To see whether there are two offenses or only one the court must determine whether each provision requires proof of a fact which the other does not. When the offenses are the same under the Blockburger test, Whalen holds that cumulative sentences are not permitted, unless elsewhere specifically authorized by Congress. 445 U.S. at 692, 100 S.Ct. at 1438. 54 Even if the predicate act of bribery and the RICO charge fail the Blockburger test, which we do not decide, 10 Congress did specifically authorize cumulative sentences under RICO. United States v. Hartley, 678 F.2d 961 (11th Cir.1982); United States v. Anderson, 626 F.2d 1358, 1367 (8th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 912, 101 S.Ct. 1351, 67 L.Ed.2d 336 (1981); United States v. Aleman, 609 F.2d 298, 306 (7th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 946, 100 S.Ct. 1345, 63 L.Ed.2d 780 (1980); United States v. Rone, 598 F.2d 564, 571 (9th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 946, 100 S.Ct. 1345, 63 L.Ed.2d 780 (1980). As the Rone court noted: 55 There is nothing in the RICO statutory scheme which would suggest that Congress intended to preclude separate convictions or consecutive sentences for a RICO offense and the underlying or predicate crimes which make up the racketeering pattern. The racketeering statutes were designed primarily as an additional tool for the prevention of racketeering activity, which consists in part of the commission of a number of other crimes. The Government is not required to make an election between seeking a conviction under RICO, or prosecuting the predicate offenses only. Such a requirement would nullify the intent and effect of the RICO prohibitions. 56 598 F.2d at 571. 57 This Court has ruled on a closely related question in United States v. Morelli, 643 F.2d 402 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 453 U.S. 912, 101 S.Ct. 3143, 69 L.Ed.2d 994 (1981). Morelli was convicted of two counts of wire fraud, and these acts were used as predicate offenses for a RICO conviction. Morelli complained that he was subject to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the eighth amendment because he was sentenced to fifteen years for the RICO violation, in addition to ten years for the wire fraud crimes. 11 We held that Congress may constitutionally make the commission of crimes within a specified period of time and within the course of a particular type of enterprise an independent criminal offense.... 643 F.2d at 413. We now hold that there was no violation of double jeopardy in trying defendants Liberatore and Ciarcia for both the federal bribery charge and the RICO charge. 58