Opinion ID: 742620
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Permissibility of Separate Sentences

Text: 114 Under the test enunciated in Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 304, 52 S.Ct. 180, 182, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932), a defendant convicted of violating two separate criminal provisions will not be punished twice for the same offense in violation of the double jeopardy clause of the fifth amendment if each provision requires proof of a fact which the other does not. See also Rutledge v. United States, 517 U.S. 292, ----, 116 S.Ct. 1241, 1245, 134 L.Ed.2d 419 (1996) (same). White concedes that section 1962(d) 18 requires proof of facts (e.g., the existence of an enterprise) not required for a conviction under [325 U.S.App.D.C. 310] section 846 19 but argues that the converse is not true. In White's view, all facts that must be proved to establish a section 846 conspiracy must also be proved to establish a RICO conspiracy through drug trafficking, White Br. 28, and the former therefore is a lesser included offense of the latter. The government responds thatsection 846 should be compared to RICO on its face rather than as applied in a particular case. Because drug trafficking is only one of the many felonies that can form the basis of a RICO conspiracy, the government contends that a drug conspiracy need not be proved to establish (and therefore is not a lesser included offense of) a RICO conspiracy. 20 115 The government is correct that under the Blockburger test we examine each relevant statute on its face. In United States v. Coachman, 727 F.2d 1293 (D.C.Cir.1984), in affirming consecutive sentences for theft and for making false claims arising from the same transactions, we observed that the Supreme Court has stated unqualifiedly that 'application of the [Blockburger] test focuses on the statutory elements of the offense.'  Id. at 1301 (quoting Iannelli v. United States, 420 U.S. 770, 785 n. 17, 95 S.Ct. 1284, 1293-94, n. 17, 43 L.Ed.2d 616 (1975)). We therefore rejected the argument that, in applying the Blockburger test, the court should look, not to the statutorily-specified elements of the offenses, but rather to the facts of the case as alleged in the indictment and established by the evidence. Coachman, 727 F.2d at 1301. While the government is correct that each statute should be examined on its face, the question remains how to read a statute listing several alternative sub-offenses. The Supreme Court answered this question in Whalen v. United States, 445 U.S. 684, 100 S.Ct. 1432, 63 L.Ed.2d 715 (1980), holding that cumulative sentences could not be imposed for rape and felony murder if rape is the felony at issue. Although the felony murder statute proscribe[d] the killing of another person in the course of committing rape or robbery or kidnaping or arson, etc., the Court characterized the homicide offense not as felony murder but as killing in the course of a rape. Id. at 694, 100 S.Ct. at 1439. The Court explained that it was not looking to the facts alleged in a particular indictment and acknowledged that rape is not always a lesser included offense of felony murder--for example, if the felony is robbery. Id. at 694 & n. 8., 100 S.Ct at 1439 & n. 1439 Nevertheless, it found determinative that [i]n the present case ... proof of rape is a necessary element of proof of the felony murder. Id. at 694, 100 S.Ct. at 1439. An offense thus constitutes a lesser included offense even if it overlaps with only one of several offenses listed in the statute criminalizing the greater offense. This result makes sense. A statute criminalizing several types of felony murder, for example, is functionally equivalent to several statutes each criminalizing a single type of felony murder. 116 As to White's claim, it matters not that drug trafficking is only one of several listed felonies that can form the basis of a RICO conviction. Because it is the predicate felony at issue in this case, the RICO statute should be read to exclude the other possible predicate felonies. See United States v. Kragness, 830 F.2d 842, 863-64 (8th Cir.1987). Reading RICO in this way, we believe there was no fact required to prove the drug conspiracy [325 U.S.App.D.C. 311] that was not also required to prove the RICO conspiracy. Accordingly, just as rape was a lesser included offense of felony murder in Whalen, so the drug conspiracy is a lesser included offense of the RICO conspiracy here. 117 The story, however, does not end there. Even if one crime is a lesser included offense of another, punishments may be imposed for both if Congress intended that they be imposed. United States v. Baker, 63 F.3d 1478, 1494 (9th Cir.1995), cert. denied, 516 U.S. 1097, ----, 116 S.Ct. 824, 921, 133 L.Ed.2d 767, 850 (1996); see also Garrett v. United States, 471 U.S. 773, 779, 105 S.Ct. 2407, 2411, 85 L.Ed.2d 764 (1985) ([T]he Blockburger presumption must of course yield to a plainly expressed contrary view on the part of Congress.); United States v. Crosby, 20 F.3d 480, 483-84 n. 9 (D.C.Cir.1994), cert. denied, 514 U.S. 1052, 115 S.Ct. 1431, 131 L.Ed.2d 312 (1995), 513 U.S. 883, 115 S.Ct. 221, 130 L.Ed.2d 148 (1994). As a number of circuits have recognized, RICO is intended to supplement, rather than replace, existing criminal provisions. Baker, 63 F.3d at 1494; United States v. Deshaw, 974 F.2d 667, 671-72 (5th Cir.1992); Kragness, 830 F.2d at 864. The RICO statute itself provides that nothing in [RICO] shall supersede any provision of Federal ... law imposing criminal penalties ... in addition to those provided for [here]. Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, Pub.L. No. 91-452, § 904(b), 84 Stat. 922, 947 (1970). Instead, separate statutes set forth the [drug and RICO conspiracy offenses], and are intended to deter two different kinds of activity, i.e., conspiracy to engage in racketeering as opposed to conspiracy to violate narcotics laws. Deshaw, 974 F.2d at 672. As a result, the circuits that have held drug conspiracies to be lesser included offenses of RICO conspiracies or have not resolved the issue nevertheless allow cumulative sentences to stand on the ground that the Congress intended to permit, and perhaps sought to encourage, the imposition of cumulative sentences for RICO offenses and the underlying crimes. Kragness, 830 F.2d at 864; see also Deshaw, 974 F.2d at 672. We likewise conclude that, although the drug conspiracy is a lesser included offense of the RICO conspiracy, cumulative punishments are authorized. 118 The remaining sentencing issues raised by White, Hutchinson and Hughes do not merit discussion.