UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. EDWARD DENNIS JONES
US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Thacker, June 1, 2017,
Double Jeopardy – A conviction for conspiracy to distribute cocaine for a one month period bars charging a multi-year conspiracy involving the same time, area, people, and facts.

Facts:
In 2012, Jones was convicted of conspiracy to distribute 17 kilograms of cocaine in the area of Lynchburg, VA along with two other individuals between July 2012 and August 2012.
In 2014, Jones was charged with conspiracy to distribute over 1,000 kilograms of cocaine in the area of Lynchburg, VA along with the same individuals (and others) between September 1998 and August 2012.

Jones argued that double jeopardy barred the second charge, since the government is not allowed to break one conspiracy into pieces in order to obtain multiple convictions.

Held:
The Court agreed. Because “both conspiracies involved him and at least two other people in common, the distribution of cocaine in the Lynchburg area, the same substantive statute, and the same time period” they should have been treated as a single conspiracy.

Double Jeopardy- A single conspiracy cannot result in multiple convictions for the same acts.

In order to tell whether there is one conspiracy or multiple conspiracies, court look to:
– The time period involved (are they close? do they overlap?)
– The charges (are they identical/related?)
– The locations
– The people involved
– The facts/actions alleged related to the nature and scope of the activities to be prosecuted

Double Jeopardy- If a defendant shows that there are “substantial overlaps” between the conspiracy charges, the government must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the charges are related to two separate criminal agreements and not just a single conspiracy broken into multiple counts.