Court Opinion

ID: 9485960
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:34:34.369415+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:27.702252
License: Public Domain

DUPLANTIER, District Judge,
concurring:
I concur, with the following brief additional observation concerning the requested “unanimity gun” charge.
The issue as to the district judge’s refusal to give the requested jury charge to the effect that the jury had to agree unanimously on which one of the ten guns was used or carried during and in relation to the drug trafficking crime is a close call, as demonstrated by the well-reasoned majority opinion. Indeed, I have given a similar charge under quite similar circumstances when re-, quested to do so. However, I am convinced that, properly interpreted, the statute (18 U.S.C. § 924(c)) requires only that all twelve jurors agree that, during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime, the defendant used or carried a firearm (any firearm). The statute does not require that all jurors agree on a particular firearm.
A hypothet illustrates the point. Assume that a rifle and a pistol are found in the room in which the defendant is apprehended during a drug transaction. A single count in an indictment charges that both firearms were “used and carried” “during and in relation to” the drug activity, and the prosecutor argues to the jury that both firearms were so used. Defendant contends that both were collector’s items. Six jurors conclude that the government proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the rifle was “used”, but not the pistol. The other six conclude that there is reasonable doubt about the rifle, but that there is no doubt that the pistol was “used” in the drug crime. The defendant would properly be found guilty of violating the statute, for each juror would have concluded that defendant used or carried “a firearm” during and in relation to the drug trafficking crime charged in the indictment.
I conclude that the defendant was not entitled to the requested “unanimity gun” charge.