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Petitioner herein was the defendant in the criminal case of
United States of America v. Leonard Ray Blanton, et al., Crim.
No. 80-30253 (M.D. Tenn., 1981), which was docketed in the U.S.
District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. In March
1981, a Federal grand jury in the Middle District of Tennessee
returned an 11-count4 indictment against petitioner, his
assistant, Clyde Edward Hood, Jr., and a third defendant for
conspiracy, mail fraud, and violation of the Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C.
sec. 1951 (1976).5 Petitioner was found guilty on all 11 counts
and was sentenced to a concurrent 3-year prison term and fined
$1,000.6
Thereafter, the Supreme Court decided McNally v. United
States, 483 U.S. 350 (1987), wherein it held that mail fraud
prohibits only schemes intended to deprive victims of property
such as money and not schemes intended to deprive victims of
intangible rights such as the right to honest Government. Based
4 The grand jury originally returned a 13-count indictment
against petitioner. The last two counts, which charged
petitioner alone with income tax evasion and filing a false tax
return, were severed from the other 11 counts and were
subsequently dismissed. See Blanton I, supra at 492.
5 More specifically, petitioner was indicted for unlawfully,
willfully, and knowingly obstructing, delaying, and affecting
interstate commerce by extorting $23,334.50 from Jack Ham (Ham),
a constituent, representing 20 percent of the profits of a retail
liquor store which Ham agreed to pay petitioner in return for
petitioner's assistance in procuring the liquor license.
6 For a complete discussion of this issue see Blanton I.
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