United States v. Booth

673 F.2d 27
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedMarch 19, 1982
DocketNos. 81-1703 to 81-1711
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 673 F.2d 27 (United States v. Booth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Booth, 673 F.2d 27 (1st Cir. 1982).

Opinion

TIMBERS, Circuit Judge.

On this appeal from, an order entered in the District of Maine, Edward T. Gignoux, Chief Judge, the principal question presented is whether the district court correctly denied appellants’ motions to dismiss the conspiracy count of an indictment as to them on the ground of double jeopardy. We hold that it did. We affirm.1

I.

On November 9, 1979, appellant Booth and eighteen others were indicted in the Southern District of Florida on six counts which charged a marijuana smuggling operation. Count I, the count pertinent to this appeal, charged Booth, from some time pri- or to June 1973 to the date of the filing of the indictment, with conspiring to possess marijuana with intent to distribute it, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846 (1976).

On October 20, 1980, Maine state police officers arrested Booth on Whitmore Neck, Deer Isle, Maine, and seized twenty-five tons of marijuana nearby. On October 29, 1980, Booth and twenty-three others were indicted in the District of Maine on charges of conspiring to possess marijuana with intent to distribute it, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(b)(6) and 846 (1976) (Count I), and on charges of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute it, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(6) (1976) (Count II). The Maine indictment charged a conspiracy from on or about March 19, 1980 to October 20, 1980.

On November 24, 1980, a superseding indictment was returned in Florida. Count I [29]*29remained the same, but the time of the continuing criminal enterprise charged in Count VI was extended to November 24, 1980. After a jury trial which began April 28, 1981, Booth was convicted on June 19, 1981 of the conspiracy charged in Count I of the Florida indictment.

On July 14,1981, Booth moved to dismiss Count I of the Maine indictment on the ground of double jeopardy. On September 11, 1981, Judge Gignoux denied this motion from the bench in a reasoned opinion.2 From the order entered on the opinion of Judge Gignoux, appellants have taken the instant appeal.

The appeal is properly before us at this time. A pretrial order denying a motion to dismiss an indictment on the ground of double jeopardy is appealable as a final order under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (1976). Abney v. United States, 431 U.S. 651, 659 (1977).

II.

In Brown v. Ohio, 432 U.S. 161, 166 (1977), the Supreme Court reaffirmed the use of the “same evidence” test previously articulated in Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 304 (1932), to determine whether two offenses are the “same offense” for double jeopardy purposes. As the Fifth Circuit explained in United States v. Marable, 578 F.2d 151, 153 (5th Cir. 1978), the test is “whether proof of the matter set out in a second indictment is admissible as evidence under the first indictment and, if it is, whether a conviction could have been properly sustained on such evidence.”

The same evidence test has been applied somewhat differently in conspiracy cases because of the possibility that the government literally could comply with it while actually carving up a single conspiracy to commit several crimes into separate prosecutions. We have indicated five factors to be considered in deciding whether two conspiracies charged actually are the same: (1) the time during which the activities occurred; (2) the persons involved in the conspiracies; (3) the places involved; (4) whether the same evidence was used to prove the two conspiracies; and (5) whether the same statutory provision was involved in both conspiracies. United States v. Chagra, 653 F.2d 26, 29 (1st Cir. 1981), cert. denied, --- U.S. --- (1982).3

Applying these factors here, we hold that Judge Gignoux properly denied the motions to dismiss the conspiracy count of the indictment. First, the time periods in the two indictments are completely different. The Florida indictment charged a conspiracy from some time prior to June 1973 to November 9, 1979. The Maine indictment charges a conspiracy from on or about March 19, 1980 to October 20, 1980.

Second, of the twenty-four defendants charged in the Maine indictment and the nineteen defendants charged in the Florida indictment, only ten defendants are common to both. Thus the persons involved in the two conspiracies are substantially different. United States v. DeFillipo, 590 F.2d 1228, 1234 & n.7 (2d Cir.) (no double jeopardy problem when, in a case where one indictment charged seven persons and the other six, four overlapped), cert. denied, 442 U.S. 920 (1979); United States v. Martinez, 562 F.2d 633, 638 (10th Cir. 1977).

Third, the places where the events charged as part of the two conspiracies took place are entirely different. We find too attenuated appellants’ claim that the Flori[30]*30da conspiracy encompassed the Maine conspiracy because the Florida indictment charged a conspiracy in the Southern District of Florida “and elsewhere.” In United States v. Chagra, supra, we rejected a similar claim where the ' earlier indictment charged conduct in Texas and in “divers other places to the grand jurors unknown.” 653 F.2d at 29. Furthermore, the overt acts charged in the two indictments here involved occurred in different places. Those charged in the Florida indictment occurred in Florida; those charged in the Maine indictment occurred in Maine.

Fourth, although evidence of the Maine conspiracy was introduced at the trial of the Florida conspiracy, this evidence was introduced for the limited purpose of demonstrating intent and knowledge through evidence of subsequent similar acts. The evidence was not introduced to show a continuing conspiracy in Maine. Admission of evidence to show intent is permitted by Rule 404(b) of the Federal Rules of Evidence. United States v. DeFillipo, supra, 590 F.2d at 1240.

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673 F.2d 27, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-booth-ca1-1982.