United States v. Sperling

530 F. Supp. 672, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10564
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJanuary 22, 1982
DocketNos. 73 CR. 441(MP), 81 CIV. 6378(MP)
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 530 F. Supp. 672 (United States v. Sperling) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Sperling, 530 F. Supp. 672, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10564 (S.D.N.Y. 1982).

Opinion

DECISION

MILTON POLLACK, District Judge.

The deficiency of this specious application under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 makes it a leaden abuse of the Writ and an imposition on the Court.

Herbert Sperling petitions this Court for a second time under 28 U.S.C. § 2255 to vacate his conviction by a jury — rendered over eight years ago — for organizing and supervising a continuing criminal narcotics enterprise. His petition asserts that he was unconstitutionally deprived of his Fifth Amendment right to due process and his Sixth Amendment right to a trial by jury. Sperling unsuccessfully raised these exact claims through another lawyer three years ago in his earlier § 2255 petition before this Court; he asserted them in the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on his appeal to that Court from the denial of § 2255 relief and raised them once again in his unsuccessful petition for certiorari thereon to the Supreme Court of the United States. Petitioner’s claims remain devoid of merit and substance in the present § 2255 petition.

SUMMARY

Petitioner on this application questions whether the Constitution requires that, in order to sustain a charge under 21 U.S.C. § 848 (Count Two herein), the defendant must be convicted of each of the crimes charged in other counts of the indictment laid under 21 U.S.C. §§ 812 and 841. The short answer is in the negative.

Section 848 reads in pertinent part:

(a) (1) Any person who engages in a continuing criminal enterprise shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment. . ..
******
(b) For purposes of subsection (a) of this section, a person is engaged in a continuing criminal enterprise if—
(1) he violates any provision of this subchapter or subchapter II of this chapter the punishment for which is a felony, and
(2) such violation is a part of a continuing series of violations of this subchapter or subchapter II of this chapter—
(A) which are undertaken by such person in concert with five or more other persons with respect to whom such person occupies a position of organizer, a supervisory position, or any other position of management, and
(B) from which such person obtains substantial income or resources.

Seriatim, the plain response to each of the contentions presented on this petition follow.

1. The record amply shows that petitioner’s claims contrived herein have heretofore always been understood by the courts and have been squarely addressed and litigated successfully in favor of the government; the claims were ripe, and postured by Sperling’s previous lawyers, fully litigated by him, and successively found wanting in merit. In his sworn statement presenting this petition, prepared by his latest attorney, Sperling acknowledges that he raised his “constitutional” argument to three courts in 1978.
[674]*6742. A § 848 conviction does not require or rest on a separate grand jury charge of or conviction only on the acts which could give rise to separate and additional indictments under § 841. A separate conviction thereon is not essential to sustain a § 848 conviction if other violations were proved. Much more was proved at the trial by the 18 witnesses who testified relating to Sperling than the specific acts mentioned in Counts Eight, Nine and Ten. Indeed, Sperling was convicted of narcotics conspiracy, Count One, 21 U.S.C. § 846. That conviction satisfied the definitional requirements of § 848(b) of engagement in a continuing criminal enterprise.
3. The Court’s instructions did not hinge conviction under Count Two on convictions under Counts Eight, Nine and Ten. The word “conviction” is nowhere used or implicit in the instructions on the essentials to be proved to sustain Count Two. No exception was taken by the defendant to the charge that “commission” of the entreprenurial narcotics acts was the essential element to be found (not “conviction” thereon).
4. The Court of Appeals, in affirming the conviction on Count Two under § 848 had addressed and its affirmance was on the grounds litigated, viz., that Sperling engaged in the sort of enterprise condemned in that statute, that the Jencks Act taint of Counts Eight, Nine and Ten had not affected the acts charged 1 or the convictions under either Counts One or Two and that Count Two was proved by “more than sufficient evidence.” United States v. Sperling, 506 F.2d 1323, 1344 (2d Cir. 1974)2

Sperling’s Conviction and the Proceedings on Direct Appeal

Herbert Sperling and several co-defendants were convicted by a jury of several narcotics offenses on July 12, 1973, after almost four weeks of trial. The evidence showed Sperling to be the kingpin in a vast continuing heroin and cocaine distribution enterprise. Sperling was also shown to be the primary supplier of heroin for this enterprise.

Sperling had been charged on Count One of the indictment with conspiracy with his co-defendants to violate the federal narcotics laws in contravention of 21 U.S.C. § 846, on Count Two with organizing and supervising a continuing criminal narcotics enterprise in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 848, and on Counts Eight, Nine and Ten under 21 U.S.C. § 841 with intent to distribute, along with others, cocaine and heroin on the occasions mentioned. The jury found Sperling and ten other defendants guilty on all counts as charged. Sperling was sentenced to life imprisonment and fined $100,000 on Count Two, and to thirty years imprisonment plus six years special parole on Counts One, Eight, Nine and Ten, and fined $50,000 on each of these counts.

On October 10,1974, the Court of Appeals affirmed Sperling’s convictions on Counts One and Two but reversed and remanded for a new trial as to him on Counts Eight to Ten because of the government’s violation with respect to those counts of its statutory obligations under the Jencks Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3500. United States v. Sperling, 506 F.2d [675]*6751323 (2d Cir. 1974), cert. denied 420 U.S. 962, 95 S.Ct. 1351, 43 L.Ed.2d 439 (1975).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Martinez-Torres
556 F. Supp. 1255 (S.D. New York, 1983)
Herbert Sperling v. United States
692 F.2d 223 (Second Circuit, 1982)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
530 F. Supp. 672, 1982 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10564, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-sperling-nysd-1982.