NCJ Number
123007
Journal
Fordham Law Review Volume: 57 Issue: 5 Dated: (April 1989) Pages: 745-763
Date Published
1989
Length
19 pages
Annotation
In some criminal trials brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) there should be a bifurcation of the jury charge and deliberations.
Abstract
There is a great risk in some criminal RICO trials that jurors can be overwhelmed by the proportions of the trial and will convict a defendant on impermissible grounds even if they have some reasonable doubts about some elements of the crime. To alleviate this risk the Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit proposed special interrogatories to the jury and the bifurcation of the jury charge and deliberations. This plan raises serious questions about the authority of a judge to modify traditional procedures, the jury's function in a criminal trial, and the extent of the prosecution's rights in a trial by jury. When a court bifurcates jury deliberations and requires a jury to answer special interrogatories about predicate acts, it should do so before it tells the jury that two predicate acts are needed to constitute a pattern of racketeering activity under RICO and before the jurors render a general verdict on the RICO count. 129 footnotes.