Background
Defendants Atorius Marquis Williams, Demonta Daniels, and Trashawn Lamar Alexander were convicted by a jury for involvement with a criminal organization called Killers with Aggression. The charges included racketeering, robbery, and firearms offenses under Section nineteen hundred and sixty-two of Title eighteen of the United States Code. The district court sentenced the defendants to terms including life imprisonment.
The court’s reasoning
The court reviewed the jury instructions for plain error because the defendants did not object before the jury retired to deliberate. The court concluded that the instructions, when considered as a whole, properly informed the jury that the defendants were on trial only for the conduct alleged in the indictment, which included brandishing and discharging firearms. Regarding the RICO conviction, the court found that the evidence showed a pattern of racketeering activity. The court noted that the Supreme Court has instructed that nothing in the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act exempts an enterprise whose associates engage in spurts of activity punctuated by periods of quiescence.
What it means going forward
The decision reinforces the standard for reviewing unpreserved jury instruction errors and clarifies that a pattern of racketeering activity under federal law can include criminal acts separated by periods of dormancy.