Opinion ID: 786207
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Jury Unanimity Under Richardson v. United States

Text: 11 DeJohn failed to object to the jury instructions regarding his felon-in-possession charge, so we review for plain error the district court's failure to give the instruction now sought by DeJohn. United States v. Sims, 975 F.2d 1225, 1240 (6th Cir.1992), cert. denied, 507 U.S. 999, 113 S.Ct. 1620, 123 L.Ed.2d 179 (1993). While DeJohn makes an ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim with regard to this asserted error, we decline to address his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel on direct appeal, as explained below, and we will review for plain error this claim of error regarding the instructions. 12 DeJohn argues that because the indictment charged the possession of two different firearms as a single violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), prohibiting the possession of firearms by a felon, he was entitled to a jury instruction stating that the jury must unanimously decide which firearm he possessed. DeJohn points to Richardson v. United States, 526 U.S. 813, 119 S.Ct. 1707, 143 L.Ed.2d 985 (1999), in which the Supreme Court held that under the continuing criminal enterprise statute, 21 U.S.C. § 848(a), each underlying violation was an individual element of the crime, and a unanimity instruction was therefore required. Title 21 U.S.C. § 848 forbids any person from engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, which in turn is defined as a violation of the drug statutes that was part of a continuing series of violations as further defined in 21 U.S.C. § 848(c). The question for the Court was whether each underlying violation in the series was an element such that unanimity was required as to which violations the defendant had committed. Richardson, 526 U.S. at 817-18, 119 S.Ct. 1707. In holding that each violation in the series was an element of the continuing criminal enterprise crime, the Court held that the statute in question defined the crime such that each violation was an element of the crime, rather than a means by which the crime is committed, which would not require unanimity. The Court illustrated the difference between element and means by discussing a hypothetical robbery by force or threat of force: while force was an element of the crime, the means by which force was brought to bear did not require unanimity, so half the jury could believe a knife was used and the other half a gun without constitutional difficulty. Id. at 817, 119 S.Ct. 1707. In making its determination, the Court proceeded to look at the language of the statute, tradition, and the breadth of the statute (which aggravates the dangers of unfairness of treating each violation as a means, id. at 819, 119 S.Ct. 1707), and to the desirability of avoiding having to decide the constitutional questions surrounding a definition of a crime that allows significant jury disagreement as to means. The Court also rejected the government's argument that demonstrating each violation would prove too difficult. 13 Prior to Richardson, the only cases in the Sixth Circuit on the subject of jury unanimity with respect to multiple firearms in a single charge dealt with the question of when the facts of a case required a unanimity instruction, rather than whether the statutory definition of the crime itself required a unanimity instruction in every case. The fact-specific rule is that no unanimity instruction is required where multiple firearms charged in a single count were discovered as part of the same transaction. See Sims, 975 F.2d at 1240-41. A specific unanimity instruction is required only where a genuine risk [exists] that the jury is confused or that a conviction may occur as the result of different jurors concluding that a defendant committed different acts. Id. at 1241 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). DeJohn asks us to announce as a rule of law that the specific firearm possessed by a felon is a statutory element of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) such that the jury must be given a unanimity instruction each time multiple firearms comprise a single § 922(g)(1) charge, regardless of the facts of the case. 14 Only one circuit court has dealt at length with the question of whether Richardson requires unanimity as to which firearm was possessed. See United States v. Verrecchia, 196 F.3d 294, 298-301 (1st Cir.1999); see also United States v. Drayton, No. 02-4234, 2002 WL 31518834,  (4th Cir. Nov.7, 2002) (rejecting similar claim without analysis but citing Verrecchia ). Verrecchia involved a defendant who argued that the instructions to the jury deciding his case should have included a specific unanimity charge as to which firearms he possessed. The Verrecchia court decided that the particular firearm possessed by a defendant is a means and not an element of the crime of being a felon in possession. The court's analysis closely tracked Richardson, looking first to the language of the statute, emphasizing the phrase  any firearm as the element of the crime, and possession of a firearm as a means to that element. The Verrecchia court then looked to other provisions of the statute and discussed the emphasis of these provisions on the categories of persons prohibited from possessing firearms rather than the type of firearm possessed. The court then considered legislative history, which demonstrated that Congress's emphasis was again on the person, not the firearm. Id. at 300. The court determined that tradition, a factor used in Richardson, was unhelpful in the case at hand. The court concluded that potential unfairness was not an issue, as unlike in Richardson, a disagreement about which gun was possessed would not mean that jurors believed the defendant to be guilty of different crimes of wildly varying seriousness. Finally, the Verrecchia court cited Sims and other pre- Richardson cases that dealt with whether jury unanimity was required as to which firearm was used or carried under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). The court found that no error, let alone plain error, occurred. Id. at 301, 119 S.Ct. 1707. 15 DeJohn attempts to distinguish his case from Verrecchia on its facts, but that argument misunderstands the holdings both of Richardson and of Verrecchia. Whether the particular firearm is an element of § 922(g) is a question of statutory interpretation, not one to be decided with reference to the facts of each case. DeJohn also adverted at oral argument to the Supreme Court case Castillo v. United States, 530 U.S. 120, 120 S.Ct. 2090, 147 L.Ed.2d 94 (2000), which involved a challenge to the determination by a judge, rather than a jury, that the defendant had carried a machine gun, a determination that carried the penalty of an additional twenty-five years in prison under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1). In determining that the type of the firearm was an element of the crime rather than a sentencing factor, the Court noted that the basic crime under the statute was the use or carrying of a firearm itself, rather than an underlying crime of violence, making the traditional notion of the firearm itself as means unhelpful to the Court's analysis. Id. at 126, 120 S.Ct. 2090. Castillo is distinguishable, however, because it dealt with a statutory provision that imposed a much steeper penalty, which both indicates an intention on the part of Congress to make the triggering fact an element of the crime and raises greater constitutional concerns if a judge rather than a jury is allowed to make that determination. 16 We are convinced by Verrecchia's careful analysis of the statute, and we hold accordingly that the particular firearm possessed is not an element of the crime under § 922(g), but instead the means used to satisfy the element of any firearm. Therefore, the district court did not commit plain error in failing to give an instruction to the jury requiring unanimity as to which of the firearms DeJohn possessed. We emphasize, however, that this does not in any way alter the holding of Sims; when the particular factual circumstances create a genuine risk that the jury is confused or that a conviction may occur as the result of different jurors concluding that a defendant committed different acts, a jury unanimity instruction is still required. Sims, 975 F.2d at 1241 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). We hold today only that, as a matter of statutory interpretation, such an instruction need not be given in every case under § 922(g).