COURT NARROWS 'CCE' RULES IN DRUG CASE

WASHINGTON, June 1 (UPI) - The Supreme Court has made it a little bit
harder to get a conviction under one of the toughest federal drug
laws, the "continuing criminal enterprise'' statute targeting drug
kingpins.

In a case involving a Chicago street gang member, the court has ruled
6-3 that a jury not only must unanimously agree that a defendant
committed a "continuing series'' of drug crimes, but also must
unanimously agree the defendant personally committed at least three of
the specific violations that make up the series.

The ruling reverses a lower-court decision against the gang
member.

In 1994, the Justice Department charged Eddie Richardson with
violating the "continuing criminal enterprise'' statute.

The statute imposes a mandatory minimum sentence of at least 20 years
in prison.

At trial, prosecutors presented evidence allegedly showing that
Richardson organized a Chicago street gang called the Undertaker Vice
Lords in 1970.

The prosecutors charged "that the gang had distributed heroin, crack
cocaine and powder cocaine...from 1984 to 1991, and that Richardson,
known as the 'King of all the Undertakers,' had run the gang, managed
the sales and obtained substantial income from those unlawful
activities.''

Richardson's lawyer asked the judge to instruct jury members that the
federal law required them to agree on the specific drug violations he
committed. Instead, the judge told the jurors that they only had to
agree that at least three offenses were committed, but they did not
have to identify them.

Richardson was convicted and an appeals court upheld the judge's
instructions.

But the Supreme Court today ``vacated,'' or threw out, the appeals
court ruling and sent the case back down for a rehearing.

In the majority opinion, Justice Stephen Breyer said the statute makes
each "violation'' a "separate element'' of the crime - and therefore
the jury must identify and unanimously agree to each separate violation.

In a strong dissent, Justice Anthony Kennedy said it was not
Congress's intent to require that each element be identified, nor is
it required by the Constitution.

Joined by two other justices, Kennedy said today's majority opinion
"rewards those drug kingpins whose operations are so vast that the
individual violations cannot be recalled or charged with
specificity.''