Opinion ID: 546225
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Dual Sovereignty: Successive Prosecutions for the Falcone and Testa Murders

Text: 38 Prior to the trial in this case, Scarfo was tried and acquitted in a New Jersey state court for the murder of Vincent Falcone. Likewise, Scarfo, Scafidi, Salvatore Merlino, Joseph Punigitore, Francis Iannarella Jr., Salvatore Wayne Grande, Charles Iannece and Joseph Grande were jointly tried and acquitted in Pennsylvania in the Court of Common Pleas for the murder of Salvatore Testa. The Falcone murder was charged as racketeering act 3 and the Testa murder was charged as racketeering act 12 in the RICO indictment. Appellant Iannarella brought an unsuccessful pretrial motion, joined in by several other appellants, to have both racketeering acts struck from the indictment on double jeopardy grounds. Jt.App. at 528. On appeal, Scafidi and Scarfo revisit this issue, arguing that, in view of their acquittals in state court, double jeopardy principles precluded the government from charging the Falcone and Testa murders as predicate offenses. Brief for Scafidi at 9-14; Brief for Scarfo at 17-22. 39 This argument is contrary to a long line of Supreme Court cases which have held that a federal prosecution arising out of the same facts which had been the basis of a state prosecution is not barred by the double jeopardy clause. United States v. Wheeler, 435 U.S. 313, 320, 98 S.Ct. 1079, 1084, 55 L.Ed.2d 303 (1978); Abbate v. United States, 359 U.S. 187, 79 S.Ct. 666, 3 L.Ed.2d 729 (1959); United States v. Lanza, 260 U.S. 377, 43 S.Ct. 141, 67 L.Ed. 314 (1922). See also Bartkus v. Illinois, 359 U.S. 121, 79 S.Ct. 676, 3 L.Ed.2d 684 (1959) (due process clause does not prohibit a state from prosecuting a defendant for the same act for which he was acquitted in federal court). The dual sovereignty doctrine rests on the premise that, where both sovereigns legitimately claim a strong interest in penalizing the same behavior, they have concurrent jurisdiction to vindicate those interests and neither need yield to the other. 17 40 The dual sovereignty doctrine has been interpreted by this court and others to mean that an acquittal in state court does not preclude the government from charging the offense subject to the acquittal as a predicate act in a subsequent RICO prosecution. United States v. Licavoli, 725 F.2d 1040, 1047 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1252, 104 S.Ct. 3535, 82 L.Ed.2d 840 (1984); United States v. Russotti, 717 F.2d 27 (2d Cir.1983), cert. denied, 465 U.S. 1022, 104 S.Ct. 1273, 79 L.Ed.2d 678 (1984); United States v. Frumento, 563 F.2d 1083 (3d Cir.1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1072, 98 S.Ct. 1256, 55 L.Ed.2d 775 (1978). In Frumento, which involved successive prosecutions for bribery and racketeering, we observed that the federal interest in prosecuting a RICO offense is significantly different than the state interest in prosecuting the predicate offenses: 41 [T]he appellants' conduct, even though it may have involved the same operative facts considered in the state court, also contains an additional element of significance to the federal courts though not the state court--the effect of their state operation on interstate or foreign commerce through a pattern of racketeering activity. 42 Frumento, 563 F.2d at 1088. 43 In view of the lack of congruity between the federal and state interests in the defendants' activities, we held that the double jeopardy clause was no bar to the RICO prosecution, as the case fell squarely within the dual sovereignty doctrine. Id. 18 44 Frumento, of course, is controlling precedent in this Circuit and, absent in banc review, we are constrained to follow it. 19 See Internal Operating Procedures, Chapter 9.1 (1990). Appellants, however, insist that this case warrants an exception to the Frumento rule because here, the degree of federal and state cooperation in the two prosecutions was so extensive as to cast doubt on the premise that they in fact were brought by separate sovereigns acting independently. Relying on Russotti, 717 F.2d at 31, and United States v. Aleman, 609 F.2d 298, 309 (7th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 946, 100 S.Ct. 1345, 63 L.Ed.2d 780 (1980), they argue that the dual sovereignty doctrine is not unqualified but is subject to an exception where the federal authorities are so intimately involved in the state prosecution that it would be fundamentally unfair to allow them to bring a separate prosecution. 45 Even if we were to follow Russotti and Aleman in this regard, we would have no basis for applying the exception in this case. 20 Apparently, there was a considerable amount of federal-state cooperation in the scheduling of the D'Alfonso murder and federal racketeering trials, but appellants have not pointed to anything in the record to substantiate their claim that federal authorities had any involvement in the Falcone and Testa murder trials. Accordingly, we conclude that appellants' previous acquittals for the Falcone and Testa murders do not provide us with reason to disturb their RICO convictions on double jeopardy grounds. 46