Court Opinion

ID: 9482319
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:46:37.05677+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:54.376751
License: Public Domain

POSNER, Circuit Judge,
concurring and dissenting.
To be convicted of being a drug kingpin, defendant Cappas had to be found to have supervised five or more persons. Not any five persons, though. The court notes that the kingpin statute does not “apply to a small-time drug dealer who uses one courier in January, a second in February, and so on, until five couriers have taken part.” That would be a two-man operation, not a six-man one. United States v. Bond, 847 F.2d 1233, 1237 (7th Cir.1988). The five underling slots needn't all be occupied at the same time, however, so Cappas is wrong to argue that the kingpin must supervise all five underlings at once. Suppose the kingpin presided over a drug ring that employed underlings A, B, and C to manufacture the drug and D, E, and F to distribute it. And suppose that during the manufacturing phase D and E were on layoff, so that the kingpin was supervising only four persons, while during distribution A and B were on layoff, so that again the kingpin was supervising only four persons. It would still be a six-man, not a four-man, operation, and the kingpin statute would apply.
So far so good, but my colleagues go on to say that it is “irrelevant that underlings came and went,” and that it is “sufficient that the [kingpin] had a conspiratorial agreement with each of the five underlings” — and in the setting of this case these statements are misleading. That underlings come and go is irrelevant if there are more than five slots, and on that assumption the relation among the underlings is also irrelevant. But if the question is how many slots there are, it becomes crucial whether the underlings are merely replacements for the second fiddle in the two-man band or whether they fill out a table of organization that, however informal, has at least five spaces on it.
The only way to reconcile the principle that mere replacements can’t get you up to five and the principle that simultaneous supervision of all five is not required is to insist that the defendant’s criminal organization have five or more positions, whether or not they’re all filled at any particular moment. The focus on positions is consistent with, indeed I think required by, the court’s observation that the kingpin statute “is intended to combat large criminal organizations.” A two-man band is not a large organization no matter how many times the second player is replaced. A six-man band is a large organization within the sense of the statute even if not all six players are playing at once. I assume that if through electronic wizardry two players can play all six instruments at once it’s still not a six-piece band within the meaning of the statute but that is not an issue here.
Cappas asked that the jury be instructed that “in deciding whether or not 5 persons were acting in concert you may not consider those persons who merely replaced oth*1482ers.” He cited Bond as the authority for this instruction. The district judge refused to give it or anything like it. This refusal was error, especially since, by (correctly) instructing the jury that Cappas need not have supervised five or persons all at once, the judge led the jury away from the replacement issue. Not only was the refusal to instruct the jury on replacements an error in light of Bond; it was prejudicial error. The government’s case on the kingpin charge was weak. The evidence suggested that there may not have been more than four slots in Cappas’s organization— and if so, it’s irrelevant that because of turnover the total number of people occupying these slots exceeded four.
I agree with the rest of the majority opinion but I would reverse Cappas’s conviction of the kingpin offense and remand with directions for a new trial.