Opinion ID: 4310658
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Lack of a Specific Unanimity Instruction

Text: The defendants argue that the District Court erred because it failed to give a specific unanimity instruction to inform the jury that it must unanimously agree on which specific acts the defendants committed. To prove cyberstalking under 18 U.S.C. § 2261A(2), the Government must, inter alia, establish that the defendant engaged in a course of conduct that placed a person in reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury, or causes substantial emotional distress, either to that person or to a partner or immediate family member, “with the intent to kill, injure, harass, intimidate, or place under surveillance with intent to kill, injure, harass, or intimidate” that person. 18 U.S.C. § 2261A(2); Fullmer, 584 F.3d at 163. The defendants argue that the jury was required to be unanimous on which of the specific acts it found to be part of the defendants’ course of conduct. “It is well settled that a defendant in a federal criminal trial has a constitutional right to a unanimous verdict.” Yeaman, 194 F.3d at 453. We have acknowledged that “[t]his includes the right to have the jury instructed that in order to convict, it must reach unanimous agreement on each element of the offense charged.” Id. This is known as the “general 23 unanimity instruction.” United States v. Beros, 833 F.2d 455, 460 (3d Cir. 1987). Typically, when an indictment alleges a number of different factual bases for the defendants’ criminal liability, the general unanimity instruction ensures that the jury unanimously agrees on the factual basis for a conviction. Id. However, “this does not mean one has a right to insist on an instruction requiring unanimous agreement on the means by which each element is satisfied.” Yeaman, 194 F.3d at 453. In the case where “a statute enumerates alternative routes for its violation, it may be less clear . . . whether these are mere means of committing a single offense (for which unanimity is not required) or whether these are independent elements of the crime (for which unanimity is required).” Id. Here, the defendants contend that specific unanimity is required because the statute contains multiple alternative routes for its violations, which consist of distinct elements. In their briefing, the defendants identify two different portions of the statute which they argue consist of distinct elements requiring specific unanimity: (1) the two specific acts that must be proven to establish the course of conduct requirement, and (2) the mens rea requirement. The Government contends that these are no more than distinct means of committing cyberstalking, not elements. The defendants argue in the alternative that the uncertainty over whether these are elements or means creates the potential for jury confusion, which would also necessitate a more specific unanimity instruction. See Beros, 833 F.2d at 460 (observing that the general unanimity instruction can be insufficient “where the complexity of the case, or other factors, creates the potential that the jury will be confused”). The defendants thus contend that under Beros, the District Court was required to provide a more specific unanimity instruction. We disagree. 24 In Beros, we described a scenario in which the general unanimity instruction is not sufficient, concluding that When it appears . . . that there is a genuine possibility of jury confusion or that a conviction may occur as the result of different jurors concluding that the defendant committed different acts, the general unanimity instruction does not suffice. To correct any potential confusion in such a case, the trial judge must augment the general instruction to ensure the jury understands its duty to unanimously agree to a particular set of facts. Id. at 461 (alteration in original) (emphasis omitted) (quoting United States v. Echeverry, 698 F.2d 375 (9th Cir.), modified, 719 F.2d 974, 975 (9th Cir. 1983) (en banc)). The indictment at issue in Beros advanced multiple different theories for how the defendant had violated the relevant statute. Id. at 460. There, the Government charged the defendant under a disjunctively worded statute, alleging that the defendant violated that statute by engaging in three separate and different acts. Id. We held that the district court abused its discretion in not specifically instructing the jury that it had to be unanimous as to at least one of the three acts committed. Id. at 460-63. We determined that “[w]hen the government chooses to prosecute under an indictment advancing multiple theories, it must prove beyond a reasonable doubt at least one of the theories to the satisfaction of the entire jury.” Id. at 462. We went on to specify that the Government “cannot rely on a composite theory of guilt, producing twelve 25 jurors who unanimously thought the defendant was guilty but who were not unanimous in their assessment of which act supported the verdict.” Id. Since Beros, we have reiterated that “the need for a specific unanimity instruction is the exception to the ‘routine case’ in which a ‘general unanimity instruction will ensure that the jury is unanimous on the factual basis for a conviction, even where an indictment alleges numerous factual bases for criminal liability.’” United States v. Cusumano, 943 F.2d 305, 312 (3d Cir. 1991) (quoting Beros, 833 F.2d at 460). And, we have held that “[t]he Beros rule comes into play only when the circumstances are such that the jury is likely to be confused as to whether it is required to be unanimous on an essential element.” Id. Thus, Beros applies where the Government advances different factual theories concerning the defendants’ charged conduct, each of which could independently satisfy the elements of the crime. In such a situation, a specific unanimity instruction is needed to ensure that the jury agrees on which of a (or a set of) charged act(s) that the defendant committed constituted criminal behavior. For example, in Beros, the indictment alleged that defendant embezzled money from a pension fund of which he was a trustee. Beros, 833 F.2d at 458. One count of the indictment alleged three separate transactions of [his] criminal conduct: (1) the use of a Joint Council credit card to pay air fare for himself and his wife; (2) occupying a hotel suite that cost $160.00 per day rather than a single or double room which would cost no more than $60.00 per day; and (3) remaining in Florida for a couple of 26 additional days for personal reasons after the conclusion of the conference. Id. at 461. We held that a specific unanimity instruction was needed to ensure that the jury did not return a guilty verdict where all jurors agreed that the defendant engaged in criminal conduct, but some jurors thought that only the first transaction constituted criminal conduct, and others thought that only the second or third transactions constituted criminal conduct. Id. We reasoned that in such a scenario, “the jury would unanimously conclude that there was a mode or manner of violating the law, but there would be no unanimity as to the predicate act. Also, under such a scenario, any verdict would be defective because of the lack of real unanimity.” Id. at 462. In contrast, we have held that a specific unanimity instruction is not needed, because the same potential for juror confusion does not exist, where “the government did not allege different sets of facts, and the only possible confusion arose from the disjunctive nature of the charge under the statute.” Cusumano, 943 F.2d at 312. Applying Beros, we have since observed that “[w]e have never required that jurors be in complete agreement as to the collateral or underlying facts which relate to the manner in which the culpable conduct was undertaken.” United States v. Jackson, 879 F.2d 85, 88 (3d Cir. 1989). We hold that the District Court was not required to issue a specific unanimity instruction in this case. Neither the mens rea requirements of § 2261A(2) nor the individual acts which constituted the statute’s “course of conduct” requirement constitute distinct elements of the offense. As to the mens rea requirement, we have held that different mental states in a 27 statute constitute alternate means and not alternate elements. See United States v. Navarro, 145 F.3d 580, 586 (3d Cir. 1998). In Navarro, we determined that “it is neither clear nor obvious that the three alternative mental states defined in § 1956[, the anti-money-laundering statute,] could not properly be treated as separate means of committing a single offense.” Id. at 592. This conclusion followed from the Supreme Court’s decision in Schad v. Arizona, 501 U.S. 624 (1991), which held that a specific unanimity instruction was not needed for a prosecution under “an Arizona statute which defined first-degree murder as being either (a) willful, deliberate, or premeditated, or (b) committed in the course of certain felonies,” because those two alternatives were not separate elements but instead “alternative means of satisfying an element of an offense.” Navarro, 145 F.3d at 586 (citing Schad, 501 U.S. at 628). Here, the statute requires that the defendant act “with the intent to kill, injure, harass, intimidate, or place under surveillance with intent to kill, injure, harass, or intimidate.” 18 U.S.C. § 2261A(2). Nothing in the text of the statute or any cases interpreting it indicates that it was intended to create separate offenses for stalking “with the intent to kill” as opposed to stalking “with the intent to . . . injure” or “with the intent to . . . harass.” Instead, the statute requires that the defendant engage in “a pattern of conduct composed of 2 or more acts, evidencing a continuity of purpose” that “places that person in reasonable fear of the death of or serious bodily injury” or causes that person “substantial emotional distress.” Id. §§ 2261A(2), 2266. A defendant violates the statute if that conduct is engaged in with one of the aforementioned mentes reae. We have noted that “different means for committing an offense ‘must reflect notions of equivalent blameworthiness or culpability.’” Yeaman, 194 F.3d at 454 n.6 (quoting United 28 States v. Edmonds, 80 F.3d 810, 820 (3d Cir. 1996)). The offense here stresses the effect that the defendant’s conduct has on the victim. Thus, as long as that conduct was taken with an intent to cause the victim harm, the specific mental state does not make a difference to the defendant’s culpability. This is evidenced by the fact that the statute sets forth different tiers of punishment based not on the mental state of the defendant, but on the harm suffered by the victim. See 18 U.S.C. § 2261(b). The decisions of our sister Courts of Appeals interpreting § 2261A(2) support our view that the mens rea requirement constitutes alternate means as opposed to alternate elements of the offense. The Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, for instance, has declined to parse the different mentes reae, and observed that “[i]t is an element of the crime that [the defendant] have intended harm to a particular victim.” United States v. Shrader, 675 F.3d 300, 311 (4th Cir. 2012). The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has also treated the mens rea requirement as a single element in conducting its analysis of the statute. See United States v. Osinger, 753 F.3d 939, 947 (9th Cir. 2014). A specific unanimity instruction was also not needed as to the course of conduct requirement. The jury is not required to agree on which specific acts were part of the stalking campaign. The statute defines the required “course of conduct” as “a pattern of conduct composed of 2 or more acts, evidencing a continuity of purpose.” 18 U.S.C. § 2266(2). The defendants argue that because, to be convicted of cyberstalking, they must have committed two or more acts as part of the course of conduct, the jury needs to agree on the specifics of which acts were committed with the requisite criminal intent. 29 However, the two or more specific acts that constitute a course of conduct are not distinct elements of the offense. The crux of the course of conduct requirement is that the defendants have engaged in “a pattern of conduct,” which “evidenc[es] a continuity of purpose.” Id. § 2266(2). This language is significant. The focus is not on the individual acts as separate, distinct events, but instead on the purpose and scope of the defendants’ pattern of stalking conduct as a whole. See United States v. Conlan, 786 F.3d 380, 386 (5th Cir. 2015) (“[T]he statute’s intent requirement ‘modifies the cumulative course of conduct as a whole,’” and avoids criminalizing otherwise innocent acts) (quoting Shrader, 675 F.3d at 311-12)). Nothing in the statute requires that the individual acts be criminal violations on their own. The statute does not require that a defendant commit multiple criminal acts to engage in a course of conduct. Instead, it is the pattern of conduct formed by the individual acts, undertaken with a continuity of purpose, that constitutes the criminal violation. As the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit observed, While the statute does not impose a requirement that the government prove that each act was intended in isolation to cause serious distress or fear of bodily injury to the victim, the government is required to show that the totality of the defendant’s conduct “evidenc[ed] a continuity of purpose” to achieve the criminal end. Shrader, 675 F.3d at 311. The court then concluded that “[t]his statutory scheme reflects a clear understanding on the part of Congress that while severe emotional distress can of course be 30 the result of discrete traumatic acts, the persistent efforts of a disturbed harasser over a period of time . . . can be equally or even more injurious.” Id. at 311-12. As a result, “[t]he cumulative effect of a course of stalking conduct may be greater than the sum of its individual parts.” Id. at 312. The court thus rejected the intent and unanimity position that the defendants take here, because it held “[t]o read in a requirement that each act have its own specific intent element would undo the law’s protection for victims whose anguish is the result of persistent or repetitive conduct on the part of a harasser.” Id. For the foregoing reasons, the District Court’s failure to include a specific unanimity instructions was not an error, and the defendants are not entitled to relief under plain error review.