Deck 10: Prosecution Strategies

Question 1

Why did Attorney General Robert Kennedy have Joseph Valachi testify publicly before the Senate in 1963?

Answer 1

To arise the public against organized crime, and to seek new legislation for wiretapping and witness immunity

Question 2

What was the legal outcome of the Valachi hearings, and its repetition in the report of the 1967 President's Crime Commission?

Answer 2

The Title III electronic surveillance provisions in 1968 and the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, establishing witness immunity, investigative grand juries, the witness protection program, and the RICO provisions

Question 3

Why is traditional prosecution strategy in organized crime cases ineffective?

Answer 3

Police investigate and then turn cases over to a prosecutor These parties answer to separate hierarchies, have different priorities, and the different agencies often blame each other for their work, which is somehow never up to the expectations of the other party

Question 4

How do police-prosecutor teams improve on the traditional system?

Question 5

What is the difference between use immunity and transactional immunity?

Question 6

Is the use of testimony offered under a grant of immunity a violation of the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination?

Question 7

How might immunized testimony be used improperly in a subsequent case by an overzealous prosecutor?

Question 8

On what grounds is immunity defended in the criminal justice system?

Question 9

How does the witness protection program work?

Question 10

How often is the witness protection used?

Question 11

What are the three primary problems faced by those in the witness security WITSEC program?

Question 12

Assess the cost-benefit of the witness protection program.

Question 13

Why is "graduating" from the witness protection program a problem?

Question 14

How has the United National Convention against Transnational Organized Crime impacted witness protection?

Question 15

What are special grand juries?

Question 16

What is the debate regarding special grand juries?

Question 17

How would you evaluate the use of special grand juries in objective terms?

Question 18

Why is the case of Sedima v. Imrex significant?

Question 19

Do RICO laws exist for violations of state law?

Question 20

Why was the RICO law not used for early a decade after its passage?

Question 21

What is the Continuing Criminal Enterprise CCE law?

Question 22

Summarize the lead charges in federal organized crime prosecutions in New York City―the U.S. jurisdiction with the largest number of organized crime prosecutions by far.

Question 23

Why do only about two-thirds of federal organized crime cases result in prosecutions?

Question 24

Table 10.2 in the text summarizes federal organized crime prosecutions from 1995-2009. What percentage of prosecutions result in convictions?

Question 25

Which two U.S. locations result in the most convictions for organized crime offenses?

Question 26

Of those convicted in federal organized crime prosecutions, is the percentage being sentenced to prison increasing over time?

Question 27

What is the Bank Secrecy Act?

Question 28

What is the purpose of the Bank Secrecy Act?

Question 29

What is the Financial Crime Enforcement Network FinCEN?

Question 30

Give an example of how money laundering works.

Question 31

How did the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 broaden money-laundering laws?

Question 32

How is international money laundering deterred?

Question 33

How does the Financial Action Task Force FATF an international body, work toward the control of money laundering?

Question 34

What are some common indicators or "red flags" of potential money laundering activity?