Opinion ID: 473005
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: RICO Substantive and Predicate Acts

Text: 12 The language and legislative history of RICO indicates little doubt that Congress, in enacting RICO, sought to allow the separate prosecution and punishment of predicate offenses and a subsequent RICO offense. RICO's statutory language indicates that Congress sought to supplement, rather than supplant, existing crimes and penalties. Section 1961(5) provides that a: 13 pattern of racketeering activity requires at least two acts of racketeering activity, one of which occurred after the effective date of this chapter and the last of which occurred within ten years (excluding any period of imprisonment) after the commission of a prior act of racketeering activity. 14 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1961(5) (emphasis added). This language suggests that Congress envisioned the situation where a defendant is convicted and sentenced for a racketeering act and subsequently charged with a RICO violation based on the prior conviction. United States v. Persico, 620 F.Supp. 836, 841 (S.D.N.Y.1985). See United States v. Hawkins, 658 F.2d 279, 287-88 (5th Cir.1981); United States v. Aleman, 609 F.2d 298, 306 (7th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 946, 100 S.Ct. 1345, 63 L.Ed.2d 780 (1980). 15 This interpretation of the language of RICO is fully supported by the statute's legislative history: 16 It is the purpose of this Act to seek the eradication of organized crime in the United States by strengthening the legal tools in the evidence-gathering process, by establishing new penal prohibitions, and by providing enhanced sanctions and new remedies to deal with the unlawful activities of those engaged in organized crime. 17 Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, Statement of Findings and Purpose, 84 Stat. 922, reprinted in 1970 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News at 1073 (emphasis added). See also United States v. Phillips, 664 F.2d 971, 1009 n. 55 (5th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 906, 103 S.Ct. 208, 74 L.Ed.2d 166 (1982) (The legislative history of RICO demonstrates that Congress intended to permit the imposition of cumulative sentences for both RICO offenses and the underlying predicate offenses. [citations omitted]. Thus, a defendant may be convicted for the predicate acts which form the basis for the RICO charge and later charged under RICO. [citations omitted]. A conviction under RICO does not, therefore, grant immunity for the offenses charged as the predicate acts of racketeering activity. [citations omitted].) 18 Several other courts of appeals have uniformly adopted this interpretation that Congress intended separate convictions or consecutive sentences for a RICO offense and the underlying predicate offense. As the Ninth Circuit observed in United States v. Rone, 598 F.2d 564 (9th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 946, 100 S.Ct. 1345, 63 L.Ed.2d 780 (1980): 19 There is nothing in the RICO statutory scheme which would suggest that Congress intended to preclude separate convictions or consecutive sentences for a RICO offense and the underlying or predicate crimes which make up the racketeering pattern. The racketeering statutes were designed primarily as an additional tool for the prevention of racketeering activity, which consists in part of the commission of a number of other crimes. The Government is not required to make an election between seeking a conviction under RICO, or prosecuting the predicate offenses only. Such a requirement would nullify the intent and effect of the RICO prohibitions. 20 Rone, 598 F.2d at 571. Accord Hawkins, 658 F.2d at 287; Aleman, 609 F.2d at 306; United States v. Boylan, 620 F.2d 359, 361 (2d Cir.1980), cert. denied, 449 U.S. 833, 101 S.Ct. 103, 66 L.Ed.2d 38 (1981). Indeed, the courts have repeatedly held that separate prosecutions and cumulative punishments for a RICO offense and its underlying predicate offenses are not inconsistent with the double jeopardy clause. See e.g., Phillips, 664 F.2d at 1009; Boylan, 620 F.2d at 361; Hawkins, 658 F.2d at 288; Aleman, 609 F.2d at 306. In light of the foregoing, we conclude that Congress intended separate prosecutions and cumulative punishments for predicate offenses and substantive RICO. 21 Having determined that Congress intended to permit prosecution for both the predicate offenses and the RICO offense, we must now determine whether prosecution for a RICO offense after an earlier prosecution for a predicate offense is constitutional under the double jeopardy clause. The critical inquiry is whether a RICO offense is considered the same offense as one or more of its predicate offenses within the meaning of the double jeopardy clause. 22 A RICO offense is not, in a literal sense, the same offense as one of the predicate offenses. United States v. Persico, 620 F.Supp. at 844. A RICO offense requires the jury to find that the defendant participated in affairs of an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity, which requires commission of two predicate offenses within a ten-year period. 18 U.S.C. Secs. 1962, 1961(5). To prove a RICO violation, therefore, requires proof of a second racketeering act. United States v. Persico, 620 F.Supp. at 844. Further, the predicate offenses and the RICO offense are intended to deter two different kinds of activity--racketeering on the one hand and narcotics violations on the other. United States v. Boldin, 772 F.2d 719, 729 (11th Cir.1985). Clearly, a RICO offense may be based in part upon a predicate offense for which the defendant has already been convicted and served a sentence. Hawkins, 658 F.2d at 288. Hence, successive prosecutions for a RICO offense and its underlying predicate offenses are not inconsistent with the double jeopardy clause. Consequently, the admission of Grayson's two prior convictions as predicate acts for the RICO substantive charge did not violate the Double Jeopardy Clause.