832
Kennedy, J., dissenting
Petitioner was the founder and leader of a gang called the Undertaker Vice Lords. The evidence indicated that petitioner operated what might be called a chain drugstore in Chicago, selling various kinds of drugs, including white and brown heroin, powder cocaine, and rock or crack cocaine, at various established locations or "spots." Several gang members pleaded guilty, cooperated with the Government, and testified at petitioner's trial. The following are but a few examples of the testimony offered against petitioner. Johnnie Chew, who ran a brown heroin distribution spot for the gang in 1987 and 1988, estimated that the gang sold a "frame"—25 packs, each containing 25 bags worth $25 apiece—every three to four days. Michael Sargent testified that, while he was in charge of a white heroin distribution spot, Richardson supplied him with $40,000 to $60,000 worth of heroin three times a week. Joseph Westmoreland estimated the Undertakers were collecting about $20,000 to $30,000 per day selling white heroin from 1988 to 1990. Andre Cal admitted cooking a quarter kilo of powder cocaine into crack cocaine two to three times a week for 10 months in the early 1990's. Several other gang members admitted to earning $50,000 to $60,000 each selling drugs for the gang on a regular basis. To suggest that Congress intended, in the face of devastating testimony like this, to allow petitioner to escape a CCE conviction because the witnesses did not describe any specific, individual transaction out of thousands (many of which are more than a decade old) is to misunderstand the nature of the crime Congress sought to prohibit.
State course-of-conduct crimes provide an analog to the federal CCE statute. A crime may be said to involve a continuing course of conduct because it is committed over a period of time, like kidnaping, harboring a fugitive, or failing to provide support for a minor. In such cases, the jury need not agree unanimously on individual acts that occur during the ongoing crime. See generally, e. g., B. Witkin &
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