Opinion ID: 503414
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Instruction on Membership of Enterprise

Text: 98 Appellants argue that Judge Gesell erroneously instructed the jury as follows: 99 The membership need not include every one of the entities I have listed as long as you find that it was substantially the same as the enterprise described. The membership of the enterprise may change over time but the enterprise must have a continuous organization, purpose and core of personnel that remain essentially unchanged during the period charged in the indictment. 100 J.A. at 267. Appellant Jackson argues that this instruction erroneously relieved the Government of its duty to conform the proof to the indictment; in particular, that it discharged the government from the burden of proving that the enterprise existed during the STARS, PRISM, and FIRM projects. Brief for Jackson at 39. Appellants did not object to this instruction below, and we therefore review under the plain-error standard. See supra at 362. 101 With respect to Jackson's first objection, substantial identity between proof and indictment is sufficient; minor variances are permitted. See supra at 355-56. 102 The enterprise is proven by common purpose, organization, and continuity. Therefore, it is not essential that each and every person named in the indictment be proven to be a part of the enterprise. The enterprise may exist even if its membership changes over time, e.g., Hewes, 729 F.2d at 1316-17, or if certain defendants are found by the jury not to have been members at any time. 103 The evidence concerning STARS, PRISM, and FIRM is another matter. We do not perceive how the instruction just quoted directly relieved the government of its burden of proving the existence of the enterprise while these schemes were in progress. On the contrary, the evidence relating to STARS, PRISM, and FIRM tended to establish this very fact--the continuity of the enterprise. See supra at 355. As the government had dismissed count I, it was not obliged to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the enterprise existed while STARS, PRISM, and FIRM were ongoing. The government was only required to show that this evidence was probative of an element it was required to prove: the existence of a continuous enterprise.