U.S. v. Deshaw

974 F.2d 667, 1992 WL 238869
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedOctober 8, 1992
Docket91-3131
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 974 F.2d 667 (U.S. v. Deshaw) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
U.S. v. Deshaw, 974 F.2d 667, 1992 WL 238869 (5th Cir. 1992).

Opinion

POLITZ, Chief Judge:

In this permitted interlocutory appeal Ri-cou Deshaw challenges the denial of his motion to dismiss the indictment against him on the grounds that it violates the double jeopardy clause of the fifth amendment. We affirm in part and reverse in part.

Background

On June 1, 1989, a grand jury sitting in the Southern District of Alabama returned an eighteen count indictment against Desh-aw and twenty-two other defendants. Drafted broadly, the indictment charged Deshaw with illegal conduct occurring from 1982 to 1989 “within the Southern District of Alabama, the Northern District of Alabama, the Middle District of Florida, the Southern District of Florida, the Eastern District of Louisiana,” several foreign countries and elsewhere.

Deshaw was named in fourteen of the counts. Count two of the indictment charged Deshaw with engaging in a con *669 tinuing criminal enterprise (CCE) in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 848. Of the seven predicate acts supporting the CCE charge, four involved the importation and possession with intent to distribute marihuana. Counts three and four, the conspiracy counts, charged Deshaw with conspiracy to import cocaine and marihuana, and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and marihuana in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 963 and 846, respectively. The remaining counts charged Deshaw with substantive offenses involving the importation and possession of cocaine as well as weapons violations.

Trial commenced on September 12, 1989 against five of the original twenty-two defendants. On October 17, 1989 the jury returned guilty verdicts for three of the defendants, acquitting Deshaw and one other defendant of all charges.

On July 19, 1990, a grand jury in the Eastern District of Louisiana returned an eleven count indictment against Deshaw and four other defendants for their involvement in the importation of marihuana into “the Eastern District of Louisiana and elsewhere” between May 1985 and April 1987. Count one charged Deshaw and his co-conspirators with the conduct of a racketeering enterprise in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d). The indictment alleged five predicate acts of racketeering,' four of which charged Deshaw with violations surrounding the importation and possession of marihuana between May 1985 and January 1986.

Counts two and three, the conspiracy counts, charged Deshaw with engaging in a conspiracy to import 6,000 pounds of marihuana and to possess that marihuana with intent to distribute in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 963 and 846, respectively, between May 1985 and January 1986. Counts six through nine charged Deshaw with substantive violations of importation and possession with intent to distribute marihuana in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 952 and 960. Counts ten and eleven, the interstate travel violations, charged Deshaw with travelling between Belize and the Eastern District of Louisiana in aid of racketeering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1952.

The Louisiana enterprise allegedly consisted of about eighteen individuals. The government contends that these individuals would obtain marihuana in Belize and smuggle it into Louisiana by air drops from low altitudes over secluded waterways. A total of about 6,000 pounds of marihuana, 2,000 pounds per drop, was allegedly imported into the New Orleans area on three separate occasions: July, August, and December, 1985.

Deshaw moved to dismiss the Louisiana indictment on grounds that double jeopardy-barred prosecution. In essence Deshaw argued that although the Louisiana grand jury drafted its indictment more narrowly — involving only marihuana — it charged the same conduct involved in the Alabama prosecution.

Following a hearing in which the parties submitted briefs to the court and the government presented in camera testimony, the district court denied Deshaw’s motion to dismiss the indictment on double jeopardy grounds. Pursuant to Abney v. United States, 1 Deshaw timely appealed.

Discussion

On appeal the district court’s denial of a motion to dismiss the indictment on the ground of double jeopardy is reviewed de novo. 2 We accept the underlying factual findings of the district court unless clearly erroneous. 3

Deshaw contends that in view of his previous prosecution in Alabama, double jeop *670 ardy principles prevent his prosecution under the Louisiana indictment. Despite the “uncertain state of the Supreme Court’s double jeopardy jurisprudence,” 4 there remains a constant: the fifth amendment provides that no one shall “be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.” 5 Thus, “the double jeopardy clause guarantees that the government, ‘with all its resources and power [will] not be allowed to make repeated attempts to convict an individual for an alleged offense, thereby subjecting him to embarrassment, expense, and ordeal and compelling him to live in a continuing state of anxiety and insecurity....’” 6 In this case, Deshaw seeks protection from an alleged second prosecution for an offense of which he has already been acquitted.

The Supreme Court described the initial test for determining whether two offenses are the same for double jeopardy purposes in Blockburger v. United States. 7 We ask “whether the offense charged in the subsequent prosecution ‘requires proof of a fact which the other does not.' ” 8 If “application of [.Blockburger] reveals that the offenses have identical statutory elements or that one is a lesser included offense of the other ... the subsequent prosecution is barred.” 9 As recognized by the Supreme Court, however, Blockburger does not constitute the entire double jeopardy inquiry in the context of successive prosecutions.

Related

United States v. Ricou Deshaw
974 F.2d 667 (Fifth Circuit, 1992)

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