Richardson v. United States, 526 U.S. 813, 14 (1999)

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826

RICHARDSON v. UNITED STATES

Kennedy, J., dissenting

must therefore be unanimous not as to whether there was a continuing series of violations but rather as to each of the individual violations making up some subset of the continuing series. The Court does not decide how many elements this portion of the statute contains, although it assumes without deciding that three will do. Ante, at 818. The Court gives no satisfactory explanation for confining its holding to the continuing series phrase, while assuming nonunanimity as to the specifics of the other elements in the same subparagraph. Nor does the Court attempt to explain how a jury is supposed to make sense of the other elements— like deriving substantial income from the series—now that the series has in effect been replaced with a few discrete violations.

The consequences of the Court's decision go well beyond the jury instruction the Court discusses. The Court's decision of necessity alters the manner in which the Government must frame its indictment and design its trial strategy. The elements of the offenses charged must be set forth in the indictment, see Hamling v. United States, 418 U. S. 87, 117 (1974), so henceforth when the Government indicts it must choose three or more specific violations and allege those, despite its ability to show that the CCE involves hundreds or thousands of sales. This is a substantial departure from what Congress intended. I submit my respectful dissent.

I

The Government procured a two-count indictment against petitioner. The CCE charge is in Count II and the Government, in my view, charged precisely what Congress said it should. Count II was as follows:

"1. From in or about 1984, to and including October 1991, at Chicago and elsewhere in the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division,

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