United States v. Felix, 503 U.S. 378, 13 (1992)

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390

UNITED STATES v. FELIX

Opinion of the Court

"is in the agreement or confederation to commit a crime." Id., at 542. In language applicable here, we pointedly stated that "the same overt acts charged in a conspiracy count may also be charged and proved as substantive offenses, for the agreement to do the act is distinct from the act itself." Ibid.; see also Pinkerton v. United States, 328 U. S. 640, 643 (1946) ("[T]he commission of the substantive offense and a conspiracy to commit it are separate and distinct offenses . . . [a]nd the plea of double jeopardy is no defense to a conviction for both offenses"). We have continued to recognize this principle over the years. See Iannelli v. United States, 420 U. S. 770, 777-779 (1975); Garrett v. United States, 471 U. S. 773, 778 (1985) ("[C]onspiracy is a distinct offense from the completed object of the conspiracy"); cf. id., at 793 ("[I]t does not violate the Double Jeopardy Clause . . . to prosecute [a continuing criminal enterprise] offense after a prior conviction for one of the predicate offenses").

In a related context, we recently cautioned against "ready transposition of the 'lesser included offense' principles of double jeopardy from the classically simple situation presented in Brown [v. Ohio] to the multilayered conduct, both as to time and to place, involved in [continuing criminal enterprise (CCE) prosecutions]." Id., at 789. The great majority of conspiracy prosecutions involve similar allegations of multilayered conduct as to time and place; the conspiracy charge against Felix is a perfect example. Reliance on the lesser included offense analysis, however useful in the context of a "single course of conduct," is therefore much less helpful in analyzing subsequent conspiracy prosecutions that are supported by previously prosecuted overt acts, just as it falls short in examining CCE offenses that are based on previously prosecuted predicate acts. Id., at 788-789.

Faced with the necessity of reconciling this longstanding authority with our language in Grady, we choose to adhere to the Bayer-Pinkerton line of cases dealing with the distinction between conspiracy to commit an offense and the

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