Court Opinion

ID: 9487322
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:14:01.712843+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:12.898816
License: Public Domain

JON 0. NEWMAN, Chief Judge,
concurring:
I concur in Judge Jacobs’s comprehensive opinion, but add these words to caution federal prosecutors about taking much comfort from having defeated the double jeopardy challenge presented on this interlocutory appeal.
Whether two conspiracies are so similar as to constitute the same offense for double jeopardy purposes will often be a close question, as I believe it is in this case. Assessing the “sameness” of conspiracy offenses is a more subtle task than the relatively straightforward matter of examining elements of an offense to determine if one is lesser-ineluded within another, see, e.g., United States v. McElroy, 910 F.2d 1016, 1022-23 (2d Cir.1990); United States v. Giampino, 680 F.2d 898, 901-02 (2d Cir.1982), or examining facts to be proved to determine if two statutes punish the same offense, see, e.g., Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 304, 52 S.Ct. 180, 182, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932); United States v. Avelino, 967 F.2d 815, 816 (2d Cir.1992). Recognizing the difficulty of the inquiry, we have applied a multi-factor analysis, articulated in United States v. Korfant, 771 F.2d 660, 662 (2d Cir.1985). Under the Korfant analysis, some pairs of conspiracies have been found to involve different offenses, see, e.g., United States v. Gambino, 968 F.2d 227 (2d Cir.1992), and some pairs have been found to involve the same offenses, see, e.g., United States v. Calderone, 982 F.2d 42 (2d Cir.1992) (“Calderone II”).
Sometimes a pair of successive conspiracies can be conceptualized as circles that intersect, see id. at 45, in which event the issue will be whether the degree of commonality (i.e., the common area within the two intersecting circles) is so extensive and the degree of difference (i.e., the areas of each circle outside the common area) so slight that under any realistic assessment the smaller of the two conspiracies should be considered a part of the larger one for jeopardy purposes. Where the smaller conspiracy can realistically be considered to be wholly contained within the larger one, the two would normally, perhaps always, be the same offense for jeopardy purposes. That was the situation in Calderone II, where we upheld a jeopardy challenge to a smaller conspiracy after concluding that it was wholly contained -within a previously prosecuted larger conspiracy.
The difficulty of assessing jeopardy defenses in successive conspiracy prosecutions arises because the geometric neatness of intersecting circles and wholly-contained circles gives way to ambiguity when the circumstances of alleged criminal activity are examined. For some of the factors identified as relevant in Korfant, the analysis will have virtually geometric precision. For example, it will normally be an easy task to determine whether the time frames (Korfant factor (3)) or the geographic scopes (Korfant factor (6)) of the two conspiracies overlap entirely, extensively, slightly, or not at all. But it will not be as easy to assess the “similarity of operation” (Korfant factor (4)) or the extent of “common objectives” (Korfant factor (7)).
Normally, the prosecution can avoid the risk of a successful jeopardy defense by in-*673eluding two conspiracy counts in an indictment, and either electing between them before submission of the case to the jury or submitting both to the jury under appropriate instructions, see Cálderone II, 982 F.2d at 48, similar to those that guide a jury to first consider the greater offense and proceed to the lesser-included offense only if not persuaded of guilt on the greater offense. See United States v. Torres, 901 F.2d 205, 241 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 906, 111 S.Ct. 273, 112 L.Ed.2d 229 (1990); United States v. Tsanas, 572 F.2d 340, 344-46 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 435 U.S. 995, 98 S.Ct. 1647, 56 L.Ed.2d 84 (1978). It is also likely that the prosecution can avoid a jeopardy defense in those situations where the facts concerning the greater conspiracy became known (and were not reasonably knowable) only after prosecution for the smaller conspiracy. See Grady v. Corbin, 495 U.S. 508, 516 n. 7, 110 S.Ct. 2084, 2090 n. 7, 109 L.Ed.2d 548 (1990), overruled on other grounds, United States v. Dixon, — U.S. —, 113 S.Ct. 2849, 125 L.Ed.2d 556 (1993); Brown v. Ohio, 432 U.S. 161, 169 & n. 7, 97 S.Ct. 2221, 2227 & n. 7, 53 L.Ed.2d 187 (1977).
If two conspiracies are the same for jeopardy purposes, either because they are so similar under the Korfant analysis or because the smaller can realistically be said to be contained entirely within the greater, as. in Cálderone II, prosecution for the second conspiracy should be barred, regardless of the order in which the conspiracies are prosecuted. Judge Jacobs observes that “where the smaller conspiracy is charged first, there is not the same opportunity for prosecutorial abuse [as where the larger conspiracy is charged first],” 35 F.2d at 669. The opportunities for abuse may not be the same, but they exist in either circumstance. Where the larger conspiracy is prosecuted first and a finding of guilt is rejected, as occurred in the first Cálderone trial, see Cálderone II, 982 F.2d at 43, the risk is that the prosecution will “retry defendants on smaller and smaller conspiracies ... until it finds one small enough to be proved to the satisfaction of a jury.” Id. at 48. Where the smaller conspiracy is prosecuted first and results in either an acquittal or a sentence that the prosecution deems inadequate, the risk is that the prosecution will have gained the advantage of previewing the defense witnesses and strategy and also determining how well its own witnesses fare under cross-examination. Either sequence affords the prosecution opportunities for unfair advantage that should not be countenanced.
In the pending ease, even if the facts of the larger Macchia conspiracy were known (or knowable) to the Government prior to prosecution of the smaller Tarrieone conspiracy, a matter not clear on the present record, careful application of the Korfant analysis reveals that the two conspiracies differ in significant respects, as the opinion of Judge Jacobs meticulously demonstrates. Though the time dimension of the smaller conspiracy is wholly contained within the larger one and the geographical dimension is substantially contained, the differences support rejection of the jeopardy defense, at least at this interlocutory stage. But the issue is not free from doubt, and the Government would be well advised not to take rejection of the defense in this case as an invitation to make a regular practice of prosecuting the same defendants for larger conspiracies after concluding that sentencing on a smaller conspiracy was inadequate. Such a course is especially inappropriate under sentencing guidelines that mandate sentences based on all relevant conduct. U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3.
For these reasons, I concur in the Court’s opinion.