Source: cases/21usc841/us-571-204-burrage-v-united-states.case
Case source: https://www.neochart.com/catalog/cases/us/volume_571/0204_01/index.html
"Results from" imposes, in other words, a requirement of actual causality.
We hold that, at least where use of the drug distributed by the defendant is not an independently sufficient cause of the victim's death or serious bodily injury, a defendant cannot be liable under the penalty enhancement provision of 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(C) unless such use is a but-for cause of the death or injury.
the Government concedes that there is no "evidence that Banka would have lived but for his heroin use,"
Burrage's conviction with respect to count 2 of the superseding indictment is therefore reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Thus, the crime charged in count 2 of Burrage's superseding indictment has two principal elements: (i) knowing or intentional distribution of heroin, § 841(a)(1), and (ii) death caused by ("resulting from") the use of that drug, § 841(b)(1)(C).
It is undisputed that Burrage is guilty of that lesser included offense.
casedsl 1
case /us/571/0204-01
name Burrage v. United States
cite 571 U.S. 204 (2014)
court Supreme Court of the United States
date 2014-01-27
url catalog/cases/us/volume_571/0204_01/index.html
source ir/caselaw/us_571.jsonl sha1=c7e16f3d28ff794b15a736c74fa5a0c4092ed9ae chars=28988
law 21usc841 (a)(1),(b)(1)(C)
role applied
posture criminal; jury conviction on heroin distribution with death-results enhancement, affirmed by CA8; certiorari by defendant on the causation standard for "results from"
result mixed
element death-results : not-satisfied [no-evidence]
variant but-for-causation/contributing-cause-in-mixed-drug-overdose
count count 2 (heroin sold to Banka; (b)(1)(C) death-results 20-year mandatory minimum)
fact @828..961 [supports] | Banka and his wife, Tammy Noragon Banka (Noragon), then met with petitioner Marcus Burrage and purchased one gram of heroin from him.
fact @2054..2277 [cuts-against] | Dr. Eugene Schwilke, a forensic toxicologist, determined that multiple drugs were present in Banka's system at the time of his death, including heroin metabolites, codeine, alprazolam, clonazepam metabolites, and oxycodone.
fact @2689..2775 [cuts-against absent] | Dr. Schwilke could not say whether Banka would have lived had he not taken the heroin.
fact @3164..3311 [supports] | She described the cause of death as "mixed drug intoxication" with heroin, oxycodone, alprazolam, and clonazepam all playing a "contributing" role.
fact @4268..4436 [cuts-against] | The court instead gave an instruction requiring the Government to prove "that the heroin distributed by the Defendant was a contributing cause of Joshua Banka's death."
rule @8866..8940 | "Results from" imposes, in other words, a requirement of actual causality.
rule @24546..24864 | We hold that, at least where use of the drug distributed by the defendant is not an independently sufficient cause of the victim's death or serious bodily injury, a defendant cannot be liable under the penalty enhancement provision of 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(C) unless such use is a but-for cause of the death or injury.
held @25006..25109 | the Government concedes that there is no "evidence that Banka would have lived but for his heroin use,"
held @25138..25314 | Burrage's conviction with respect to count 2 of the superseding indictment is therefore reversed, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
gloss Drug was one of several contributing to a mixed-drug overdose; no expert could say the victim would have lived without it, nor that it alone was sufficient. Contributing/substantial-factor causation rejected; independently-sufficient-cause rule left open; proximate cause (foreseeability) question not reached.
element act.distribute : satisfied [conceded]
variant sale/hand-to-hand-sale-to-user
fact @1760..1976 [supports] | Count 2 alleged that Burrage unlawfully distributed heroin on April 14, 2010, and that "death ... resulted from the use of th[at] substance"-thus subjecting Burrage to the 20-year mandatory minimum of § 841(b)(1)(C).
rule @7420..7664 | Thus, the crime charged in count 2 of Burrage's superseding indictment has two principal elements: (i) knowing or intentional distribution of heroin, § 841(a)(1), and (ii) death caused by ("resulting from") the use of that drug, § 841(b)(1)(C).
held @27784..27856 | It is undisputed that Burrage is guilty of that lesser included offense.
gloss The underlying (a)(1) distribution was not contested; it survives as a lesser included offense with the default (b)(1)(C) sentence.
element knowledge : not-reached
element substance : not-reached
gloss Heroin (Schedule I) undisputed.
element quantity : not-reached
gloss One gram; (b)(1)(C) is the no-threshold tier, so quantity was not in issue.
misfit The enhancement is a penalty provision that (via Apprendi/Alleyne) is treated as an ELEMENT of an aggravated offence, with (a)(1) as a lesser included offence; the notation has no way to say "element of the aggravated crime but not of the base crime", nor that the claim succeeded on the base offence and failed on the enhancement (recorded as result mixed).
misfit death-results has internal structure the flat id hides: actual cause (decided: but-for) vs. legal/proximate cause (certiorari granted, expressly not decided) vs. the independently-sufficient-cause exception (expressly left open). Sub-ids death-results.actual-cause / .proximate-cause would be cleaner.
misfit The holding is not-satisfied on a mix of bases: the but-for rule is a pure question of law, and the application rests on the Government's concession that there was no but-for evidence. The block is tagged [no-evidence] (conviction reversed for want of proof under the correct standard); the [law] half survives only in the `rule` lines and the concession cannot share the one basis slot.
misfit Concurrence in the judgment (Ginsburg, Sotomayor) rests only on lenity and rejects the "because of" analogy; `scope` has `dissent` but no value for a concurrence, so a rule line still cannot be attached to it. Alito did not join Part III-B (policy discussion).
misfit IR text appends the footnotes after the opinions without markers; the `held` quote for act.distribute comes from a footnote whose anchor in the body is lost.