Opinion ID: 2827702
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Kramer’s Direct Appeal

Text: Kramer filed his direct appeal in May 1989. As relevant here, that appeal alleged two errors requiring reversal. Kramer argued that the district court erred in (1) refusing to require juror unanimity as to the three predicate violations required for the “continuing series” element of the CCE count; and (2) allowing the jury to consider the section 846 charge as one of the predicate offenses of the CCE, because it actual- 6 No. 14-3049 ly constituted a lesser-included offense (and was therefore barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause). Before we ruled on Kramer’s appeal, we decided United States v. Baker, 905 F.2d 1100 (7th Cir. 1990). In that case, we concluded that a section 846 offense could not be counted as one of the section 848 “continuing series of acts,” because a section 846 conspiracy was subsumed within the “concert aspect” of section 848(c). Id. at 104. In light of that determination, we allowed the parties to submit supplemental briefing on the issue. In January 1992, we affirmed Kramer’s convictions. United States v. Kramer, 955 F.2d 479, 492 (7th Cir. 1992). First, we concluded that the court was not required to instruct the jury that it must unanimously agree on the same three section 848 predicate offenses. We acknowledged, however, that a circuit split existed on that issue. Second, we acknowledged that our decision in Baker made clear that a section 846 charge could not be counted as one of the section 848 “continuing series” offenses. But we held that any error in allowing the jury to consider the section 846 count was harmless, because Kramer had been charged with many additional drug offenses. We concluded that “[t]hese offenses were more than adequate to meet the continuing series requirement of the CCE charge.” Id. at 486.