Opinion ID: 715789
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Background Interpretive Principles

Text: 41
42 We look first to general historical tradition in criminal jurisprudence. Criminal trials have long ensured substantial jury agreement as to the facts establishing the offense. This is because criminal statutes and the common law have generally defined crimes in terms of conduct (and accompanying mental state) that takes place in a single place at some specific time. For example, murder statutes require that the defendant killed some other person, an act occurring in some specified time and place. Thus, when a jury delivers a general guilty verdict for such a crime, we are confident that the jury agreed on most of the actions engaged in by the defendant. When there is a real risk that a jury will convict without agreement on a discrete set of actions, courts have required specific unanimity instructions. See, e.g., United States v. Holley, 942 F.2d 916, 928-29 (5th Cir.1991) (reversing a conviction for perjury because the district court's instructions allowed the jury to convict without agreement as to a particular false statement), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 77, 126 L.Ed.2d 45 (1993). In our view, substantial agreement on a discrete set of actions is essential to ensure that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of some specific illegal conduct. See Howe, supra n. 10. 43 In the face of this tradition, we cannot read from Congress's silence that it intended CCE predicate offenses to constitute mere means of violating a single CCE offense. To do so would allow conviction on jury agreement merely that the defendant committed some three violations of United States Code, Title 21, Chapter 13, subchapters I and II, even when it is alleged that the defendant committed many different acts occurring at different times and places. This is a wholly different situation from the one at issue in Schad. Indeed, as Justice Scalia pointed out in criticizing the plurality's moral equivalence test of constitutionality, We would not permit, for example, an indictment charging that the defendant assaulted either X on Tuesday or Y on Wednesday, despite the 'moral equivalence' of those two acts. Schad, 501 U.S. at 651, 111 S.Ct. at 2507 (Scalia, J., concurring in the judgment). 12 44
45 Constitutional considerations also guide our analysis. There is a real possibility that the CCE statute would violate the Due Process Clause absent a specific unanimity requirement. See Eric S. Miller, Note, Compound-Complex Criminal Statutes and the Constitution: Demanding Unanimity as to Predicate Acts, 104 Yale L.J. 2277 (1995). [W]here a statute is susceptible to two constructions, by one of which grave and doubtful constitutional questions arise and by the other of which such questions are avoided, [our] duty is to adopt the latter. United States ex rel. Attorney General v. Delaware & Hudson Co., 213 U.S. 366, 29 S.Ct. 527, 53 L.Ed. 836 (1909). 46 Both the Schad plurality and Justice Scalia agree that due process is defined in part by historical practice. As mentioned, interpreting predicate offenses as different means of violating a single continuing series element marks a departure from historical guarantees on the degree of factual agreement necessary to establish a conviction. And, of course, on a more specific level, there is no historical analogue to the CCE statute. The first complex criminal statutes like the CCE law appeared only in 1970. See Miller, supra, at 2280 & nn. 12-14. 13 We recognize that history [is] less useful as a yardstick in cases dealing with modern statutory offenses lacking clear common law roots. Schad, 501 U.S. at 640 n. 7, 111 S.Ct. at 2501-02 n. 7 (plurality opinion). But to the extent history has any force, it counsels against interpreting CCE predicate violations as means, for which unanimity is not required. 47 Moreover, in addition to historical practice, the Schad plurality believed that due process requires that different means, for which unanimity is not required, must reflect notions of equivalent blameworthiness or culpability. Schad, 501 U.S. at 643, 111 S.Ct. at 2503 (plurality opinion). If the predicate offenses are interpreted as means, we suspect that the CCE statute may have serious problems meeting this requirement. A violation of any provision of U.S.Code Title 21, Chapter 13, subchapter I or II can serve as a predicate offense. See 21 U.S.C. § 848(c). Predicate offenses thus range from simple possession of marijuana, 21 U.S.C. § 844, to the distribution of cocaine or heroin, 21 U.S.C. § 841. The disparate penalties imposed for different violations--generally no more than a year in prison for the first-time offense of simple possession, see 21 U.S.C. § 844(a), compared to a minimum of ten years in jail for distributing a large quantity of drugs, see 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A)--cast serious doubt on whether different predicate offenses (at least these different offenses) can be characterized as equally blameworthy. 14 These potential constitutional problems--both equivalent blameworthiness and lack of a historical analogue--also lead us to interpret the CCE predicate violations as elements of different offenses, for which unanimity is required. 48 Judge Garth criticizes this analysis, because, in his view, Congress has already determined that different predicate offenses are equally blameworthy by making them alternative routes of violating the same statute. But this view fundamentally misunderstands the nature of the equivalent blameworthiness analysis. The Schad plurality's test is a check on the legislature's power: its purpose is to decide whether different routes of violating the same statute are so morally disparate that a legislature cannot constitutionally treat them as mere means. Thus, the mere fact that Congress has established alternative routes of violating the same statute shows only the need for the equivalent blameworthiness analysis; it cannot answer the question. 49 Judge Garth also suggests that the equivalent blameworthiness test is a pointless exercise: even if different predicate offenses are so morally disparate that a specific unanimity instruction is required, he argues, a defendant could still be convicted under the CCE statute for widely different offenses. While this argument points out another potential problem with the CCE statute--one not at issue on this appeal--it does not undermine the utility of the equivalent blameworthiness test. 50
51 Finally, requiring specific unanimity is counseled by concerns underlying the rule of lenity. That rule--requiring ambiguous criminal statutes to be construed in favor of the defendant--is applied both to the scope of conduct covered by a criminal statute and to the extent of the penalties imposed. See, e.g., Bifulco v. United States, 447 U.S. 381, 387, 100 S.Ct. 2247, 2252, 65 L.Ed.2d 205 (1980) (In past cases the Court has made it clear that [the rule of lenity] applies not only to interpretations of the substantive ambit of criminal prohibitions, but also to the penalties they impose.) (citations omitted). According to the Supreme Court, the rule ensures there is fair warning of the boundaries of criminal conduct and that legislatures, not courts, define criminal liability. Crandon v. United States, 494 U.S. 152, 158, 110 S.Ct. 997, 1001-02, 108 L.Ed.2d 132 (1990) (citing Liparota v. United States, 471 U.S. 419, 427, 105 S.Ct. 2084, 2089, 85 L.Ed.2d 434 (1985); United States v. Bass, 404 U.S. 336, 347-48, 92 S.Ct. 515, 522-23, 30 L.Ed.2d 488 (1971)). 52 The rule of lenity is not directly applicable to the question whether a single statute creates multiple offenses for purposes of jury unanimity. However, the rule has been applied to a conceptually analogous situation: whether a single criminal act constitutes one or more violations of a statute. See Ladner v. United States, 358 U.S. 169, 79 S.Ct. 209, 3 L.Ed.2d 199 (1958) (a single discharge of a shotgun wounding two federal officers constitutes a single violation of 18 U.S.C. § 254 (1940)); Bell v. United States, 349 U.S. 81, 75 S.Ct. 620, 99 L.Ed. 905 (1955) (transporting two women across states lines constitutes a single violation of the Mann Act); United States v. Universal C.I.T. Credit Corp., 344 U.S. 218, 73 S.Ct. 227, 97 L.Ed. 260 (1952) (each breach of Fair Labor Standards Act duty to a single employee in any single workweek does not constitute a separate offense). 53 Moreover, the principles motivating the rule have considerable force here. Several cases--those addressing the penalties a defendant will receive--suggest that people deserve warning not only of the boundaries of criminal conduct, but also of the repercussions of crossing those boundaries. For example, in United States v. Granderson, --- U.S. ----, ----, 114 S.Ct. 1259, 1261, 127 L.Ed.2d 611 (1994), the Court addressed the meaning of the original sentence in a statute providing that if a person serving a sentence of probation possesses illegal drugs, the court shall revoke the sentence of probation and sentence the defendant to not less than one-third of the original sentence. --- U.S. ----, ----, 114 S.Ct. 1259, 1261, 127 L.Ed.2d 611 (1994) (quoting 18 U.S.C. § 3565(a)) (emphasis added). Because the phrase was ambiguous, the Court applied the rule of lenity and interpreted the phrase to mean the applicable Guidelines sentence of imprisonment, not the revoked term of probation, resulting in a much shorter sentence. Id. at ---- - ----, 114 S.Ct. at 1267-68. In that case, the defendant's conduct--possessing illegal drugs while on probation--was clearly illegal and the only question was the harshness of the penalty. The court's opinion thus implies that fair warning as to the harshness of criminal penalties is an important concern. Accord Bifulco v. United States, 447 U.S. 381, 400, 100 S.Ct. 2247, 2259, 65 L.Ed.2d 205 (1980) (applying rule of lenity in deciding what punishment is authorized by a statute); Ladner v. United States, 358 U.S. 169, 178, 79 S.Ct. 209, 214, 3 L.Ed.2d 199 (1958) (This policy of lenity means that the Court will not interpret a federal criminal statute so as to increase the penalty that it places on an individual when such an interpretation can be based on no more than a guess as to what Congress intended.). 54 Procedural protections at trial are inherently linked to such repercussions, for these protections affect the likelihood that a penalty will be imposed. At some point, differences in procedural protections become as significant as different penalties, and the need for fair warning just as critical. The degree of jury unanimity required by a statute is important enough a protection that we hesitate to interpret an ambiguous statute to require less, rather than more, unanimity. 55 Just as in the rule of lenity cases, we are faced with an ambiguous statute. See Smith v. United States, 508 U.S. 223, 238-39, 113 S.Ct. 2050, 2059, 124 L.Ed.2d 138 (1993) (rule of lenity is reserved for cases where, [a]fter seiz[ing] every thing from which aid can be derived, the Court is left with an ambiguous statute.) (quoting United States v. Bass, 404 U.S. 336, 347, 92 S.Ct. 515, 522, 30 L.Ed.2d 488 (1971) (quoting United States v. Fisher, 6 U.S. (2 Cranch) 358, 386, 2 L.Ed. 304 (1805))) (internal quotations omitted). As mentioned, the language and legislative history of the CCE statute provide no clue as to Congress's view of specific unanimity. In such a situation, principles underlying the rule of lenity, in conjunction with the other principles we have discussed, lead us to read the CCE statute to require unanimity as to each predicate offense.