Antuan L. Wynn v. United States
DueProcess
Whether charging a single conspiracy with proof of a chain of distribution relationships, and without proof that a defendant agreed to join the broader charged scheme, violates the Due Process Clause
This Court has long upheld the due process right of a defendant not to be charge d a single conspiracy when the proof at trial establishes multiple separate conspiracies. Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750 (1946) . Here, the government charged Antuan Wynn as part of a sprawling rimless wheel conspiracy involving disparate fentanyl and cocaine trafficking. Wynn was acquitted of the sole drug distrib ution charge against him but convicted him of conspiracy when he at most supplied drugs to a single alleged co -conspirator, who had other unconnected cocaine suppliers and obtained fentanyl from entirely different sources. The question before this Court is as follows: Whether charging a single conspiracy with proof of a chain of distribution relationships , and without proof that a defendant agreed to join the broader charged scheme , violates the Due Process Clause.