United States DC Circuit

Defendant's drug conspiracy and related convictions, and his sentence, are affirmed in part where: 1) Congress intended to impose for a Violent Crimes in Aid of Racketeering (VICAR) violation a cumulative penalty separate from and in addition to what was authorized by a particular law of a state or the U.S., based upon the showing of an additional statutory element -- in the case of VICAR, that the underlying violent offense bore a certain relationship to racketeering activity; 2) no Fed. R. Evid. 404(b) notice was required for evidence of an "intrinsic act," that is, an act that was part of the crime charged; 3) the excluded testimony about which defendant complained would at best have contradicted minor points made by two government witnesses; 4) VICAR, by regulating conduct within the District of Columbia, did not exceed congressional authority under the Commerce Clause. However, some of defendant's convictions are vacated in part where a limited resentencing remand was appropriate because six convictions for simple drug distribution merged into the analogous convictions for distribution of drugs within 1,000 feet of a school.

Appellate Information

• Argued 12/07/2009
• Decided 03/30/2010
• Published 03/30/2010

Judges

• Before:  HENDERSON and GRIFFITH, Circuit Judges, and WILLIAMS, Senior Circuit Judge.

Court

• United States DC Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Robert S. Becker, appointed by the court, argued the cause for the appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Stephanie Goldstein Brooker, Assistant United States Attorney, argued the cause for the appellee.  Roy W. McLeese III and Mary B. McCord, Assistant United States Attorneys, were on brief.