United States v. Louis Ziskin

This is an interlocutory appeal from an Order of the United States District Court for the Central District of California denying Appellant Louis Ziskin’s motion to dismiss on double jeopardy grounds three counts of an indictment for conspiring to import, possess and distribute “ecstasy” in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 963 and 846 and engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise (CCE) in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 848 . Ziskin contends that the district court erred in denying his motion to dismiss the conspiracy counts (Counts 1 and 8, respectively) because he had already been convicted under an earlier indictment for the conspiracy charged in this second indictment. He also argues that the district court improperly failed to dismiss the CCE count (Count 13) because the conspiracy for which he was convicted in the prior indictment is a lesser-included offense of the CCE charge in this indictment.

As a threshold matter, we must determine the appropriate standard of review. We conclude that the district court’s denial of Ziskin’s motion to dismiss based on double jeopardy is reviewed de novo, but the district court’s underlying factual determinations are reviewed for clear error. Our…