United States v. Dan Felix Cecil, United States of America v. Lynn Richard Johnson, United States of America v. Randy Darrell Thomas

Appellants Cecil, Johnson, and Thomas challenge the validity of their criminal convictions. They allege that the insufficiency of the underlying Grand Jury indictment and other problems at their trial not pertinent to this decision require the reversal of their conviction. We reverse due to the insufficiency of the indictment.

On May 23, 1978, the Grand Jury charged defendants and others with conspiring to commit offenses in violation of certain federal statutes relating to the importation and distribution of marihuana. The indictment reads as follows:

A jury found appellant Cecil guilty on both Counts and appellants Johnson and Thomas guilty on only Count II.

The appellants all raised timely challenges to the indictment proffering motions to dismiss based upon the indictment’s insufficient factual precision. The trial judge recognized the validity of these claims, commenting that, “this sort of indictment goes far beyond the leeway afforded by the Ninth Circuit.” Reporter’s Transcript, November 6, 1978, at 23 [hereinafter “R.T.”]. However, initially indicating that the requested bill of particulars would remedy the indictment’s defects (R.T. at 23) and later deciding that the…