White Collar Roundup - July 2012

A Fine Revolution

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that only a jury, not a judge, may make findings that enhance the maximum fine exposure for a convicted defendant. The Court applied to criminal fines its prior holding in Apprendi v. New Jersey, which held that "[t]he Sixth Amendment reserves to juries the determination of any fact, other than the fact of a prior conviction, that increases a criminal defendant's maximum potential sentence." In the case, the jury convicted the defendant-company for violating a law that authorized a $50,000 per-day fine. The jury was not asked to—and did not—specify how many days the law was violated. At sentencing, the government sought to impose a fine substantially in excess of the one-day total. The district court ruled that the jury necessarily found a violation of 762 days (making the potential fine $38.1 million) and imposed a fine of $6 million. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed, holding that Apprendi does