Court Opinion

ID: 9465619
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 00:51:28.984305+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:39:16.841140
License: Public Domain

McKAY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
One does not have to have any sympathy for drug dealers to express a deep concern about the erosion of fundamental doctrines of liberty when that erosion occurs in cases dealing with drug dealers. This case represents one more example of the continuing erosion of the concept that “[g]uilt with us remains individual and personal, even as respects conspiracies. It is not a matter of mass application.’’ Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 772, 66 S.Ct. 1239, *13451252, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946). While I have expressed elsewhere in greater detail my concern about the growing tentacles of conspiracy doctrines, United States v. Heath, 580 F.2d 1011 (10th Cir. 1978) (McKay, J., dissenting), the Court’s analysis in this case compels me to reiterate my apprehensions.
In this case all that the evidence shows is that one Thompson was a major drug dealer in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and that these defendants obtained their supplies (apparently for resale) from him. If we take seriously our stated standard that criminal cases must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, I do not believe that this record supports a finding that these customers of one dealer were connected together in a common conspiracy. What is missing is the “rim of the wheel to enclose the spokes” of a conspiracy. See Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. at 755, 66 S.Ct. at 1243. Even more alarming is the absence of any evidence under either a civil or criminal standard of proof which would show that these defendants were knowingly involved by agreement with James Anderson — Thompson’s California supplier. The majority in this case makes that leap by further enshrining in the criminal law what is essentially the “affecting commerce” rationale of Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111, 63 S.Ct. 82, 87 L.Ed. 122 (1942).1
It is obvious why some prosecutors, with our aid and comfort, are enamored of bringing allegations of mass conspiracy. No matter how thin the proof as to individual defendants, once the jury has looked at the sheer numbers involved and has been shocked by the extensive evidence of criminal activity by a remote actor,2 the chance that they will pay serious attention to the absence of substantial proof as to one individual is not particularly great. A doctrine which permits this impairs liberty.
To avoid the obvious prejudice attending a mass trial, we ought to return to the principles enunciated in Kotteakos and United States v. Butler, 494 F.2d 1246 (10th Cir. 1974). Although it may represent some inconvenience to the government, my position here would not prevent the government from legitimately prosecuting those who were in fact guilty.3 In any event, mere inconvenience to the government has never been an adequate justification for the erosion of principles governing fair trial. See Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. at 773, 66 S.Ct. 1239.
I would reverse.

. Although not totally without hyperbole, I made this observation earlier in United States v. Heath, 580 F.2d at 1032 (McKay, J., dissenting). Its repetition seems justified here in view of the majority’s insistence that the large amount of narcotics distributed gives rise to a presumption of knowing participation in a “wide-ranging venture.” It is difficult to imagine how such an analysis can be effectively limited in its scope. The expansiveness of this rationale threatens to render meaningless the very word it seeks to define — “conspiracy.”

. When one examines the evidence against Anderson set forth on page 1344 of the majority opinion, it is clear why the prosecutors wished to have these small fry tried with him even though no evidence at all linked them together in a conspiracy.

. As in Kotteakos, there was in this case substantial evidence of individual conspiracies between each of these defendants and their supplier, Thompson. There was also evidence of conspiracy between Thompson and Anderson.