Court Opinion

ID: 9467692
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 01:53:53.214858+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:27.913793
License: Public Domain

VAN GRAAFEILAND, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
I agree with Judge Nickerson that all of the judgments should be affirmed, and I believe it would be helpful to state briefly why I do.
It is hornbook law that one who aids and abets the commission of a crime is as responsible for the crime as if he committed it directly. Nye & Nissen v. United States, 336 U.S. 613, 618, 69 S.Ct. 766, 769, 93 L.Ed. 919 (1949); United States v. Molina, 581 F.2d 56, 61 n.8 (2d Cir. 1978); United States v. Campbell, 426 F.2d 547, 553 (2d Cir. 1970); 18 U.S.C. § 2. Accordingly, a defendant who is indicted as a principal may be convicted on proof that he was merely an aider and abetter. United States v. Bommarito, 524 F.2d 140, 145 (2d Cir. 1975); United States v. Ramsey, 374 F.2d 192, 196 (2d Cir. 1967). So also, one who is charged with conspiracy to commit an unlawful act may be convicted if he conspired to aid and abet the commission of the act. Pereira v. United States, 347 U.S. 1, 11-12, 74 S.Ct. 358, 364, 98 L.Ed. 435 (1954); United States v. Valencia, 492 F.2d 1071 (9th Cir. 1974); United States v. Lester, 363 F.2d 68, 72-73 (6th Cir. 1966), cert. denied, 385 U.S. 1002, 87 S.Ct. 705, 17 L.Ed.2d 542 (1967).
Appellants were charged with conspiring to violate 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), which makes it unlawful to “manufacture, distribute, or dispense, or possess with intent to manufacture, distribute, or dispense, a controlled substance... ” The jury quite properly could have found that appellants conspired to aid and abet the manufacture and distribution of heroin by furnishing the essential diluents, mannite and quinine, and thus were members of a drug conspiracy. See United States v. Wolk, 398 F.Supp. 405, 410 (E.D.Pa.1975). Whether there was a single conspiracy or multiple conspiracies was for the jury under the instructions correctly given by the district judge. United States v. Armedo-Sarmiento, 545 F.2d 785, 789 (2d Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 430 U.S. 917, 97 S.Ct. 1330, 51 L.Ed.2d 595 (1977).