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Conviction of Both Drug Conspiracy and CCE Counts Violate Double Jeopardy; Other Arguments Rejected

By Shari Allison

US v. Hutchinson et al, -- F.3d --, 2009 WL 2217521 (10th Cir. 7/27/09) - appeal of crack convictions on retrial, after first jury hung and a mistrial was declared, of several defendants who ran a curbside crack operation out of a Denver motel. Until a drug-related murder messed things up, defendants exhibited a powerful, if "peculiar," community spirit; they ran a Mother's Day "crack scramble" involving crack tossed from a balcony onto a parking lot for moms to grab, as well as an Easter egg hunt with crack rocks substituted for eggs. The jury was adequately instructed on the structure required to meet RICO's enterprise element in light of recent Boyle v US, 129 S.Ct. 2237 (2009), decision. As gov't conceded, because drug conspiracy is a lesser included offense of CCE, convictions of both violate double jeopardy, so case is remanded to district court for one of the two convictions to be vacated...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tenth Circuit Blog on July 31, 2009 (boomark / email).