Court Opinion

ID: 9467050
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:36:40.407967+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:07.373527
License: Public Domain

FAIRCHILD, Chief Judge,
concurring.
I concur in the decision; but reach it by a somewhat different analysis.
I agree that review of the evidence of both trials demonstrates factually that Count One of Indictment 987 and Count One of Indictment 1021 charged the same conspiracy. Accordingly, the trial of Count One of No. 1021 violated the Fifth Amendment and the resulting conviction is void. There is no need to rely on the doctrine of collateral estoppel. The conviction of conspiracy at the second trial would have been void even if there had been a conviction of conspiracy at the first trial.1
It seems to me, however, that defendant is also correct in arguing that Count One of No. 1021 should have been dismissed on double jeopardy grounds before trial. The court’s opinion states that a defendant claiming double jeopardy in a second prosecution for conspiracy bears the burden of establishing that the prosecutions are for the same offense in law and in fact. I agree that this burden lies initially with the defendant, but consider that a sufficient showing by the defendant shifts the burden to the State. The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has held that “when a defendant makes a non-frivolous showing that an indictment charges the same offense as that for which he was formerly placed in jeopardy, the burden of establishing separate crimes — in this case separate conspiracies— is on the government.” United States v. Inmon, 568 F.2d 326, 331-32 (3d Cir. 1977). Accord, United States v. Mallah, 503 F.2d 971 (2d Cir. 1974). Two courts of appeal have held that this burden is on the defendant, but their opinions do not indicate whether they meant only an initial burden or a burden throughout the proceeding. United States v. Marable, 578 F.2d 151, 153 (5th Cir. 1978); United States v. O’Dell, 462 F.2d 224 (6th Cir. 1972). I would find that defendant met his burden, but the government failed to meet its resulting burden of showing separate conspiracies and that the district court should have dismissed Count One of No. 1021 on double jeopardy grounds before trial.
Castro had already stood trial on an indictment charging that he and Ramos had conspired to distribute heroin, and that the conspiracy had begun in September, 1977 *467and continued to February 2, 1978. When brought to trial on No. 1021, he was facing a charge that he and Ramos had conspired to distribute heroin, and that the conspiracy had begun in the summer of 1977 and continued to a date in November, 1977.
The two conspiracy counts differed in that two additional conspirators were named in No. 987, different from the two additional conspirators named in No. 1021, and some of the overt acts alleged were different. Nevertheless, there was nothing in No. 1021 which could have prevented the government from a second submission of the proof offered at the first trial, to prove the conspiracy count of No. 987.
Given the identity of two conspirators, the identity of the object of the conspiracy, the substantial identity of the time over which the conspiracy was alleged to have continued, and there being nothing in No. 1021 which limited the government to a different conspiracy from that which it attempted to prove to the first trial, it seems to me that the conspiracy count of No. 1021 should have been dismissed as a violation of the Fifth Amendment. If the government wished to claim a different conspiracy, it should have obtained a new indictment which would have excluded the conspiracy claimed in No. 987, and attempted to be proved.
Application of the doctrine of collateral estoppel is appropriate as to Count Two of No. 1021 and presents a close question. It is clear that Castro could be found guilty of the delivery of heroin only on the theory that he aided and abetted Ramos, Alejo, and Acapulco Joe in the September 29 sale. There is little on which to base a finding of aiding and abetting not also encompassed within the alleged existence of a conspiracy between Castro and Ramos at and before the time of this sale; the first jury found that such conspiracy did not exist. It is with some doubt that I concur in the decision permitting a new trial on Count Two. At that new trial on the substantive drug delivery count, the government will at least be precluded from using evidence of the alleged conspiracy of which Castro has been acquitted to show that Castro aided and abetted in the drug delivery on September 29.

. The government’s brief at page 35 acknowledged that Count One of No. 1021 would be barred on double jeopardy grounds if this court were to determine that the two conspiracies charged were actually only one conspiracy.