Page:United States Reports 502 OCT. TERM 1991.pdf/215

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Cite as: 502 U. S. 46 (1991)

57

Opinion of the Court

charged.” Id., at 420. Cf. United States v. Miller, 471 U. S. 130, 136 (1985). Although petitioner does not ask us to overrule Turner, neither does she give us any adequate basis for distinguishing it. She claims that we have not yet applied the rule of that case to multiple-act conspiracies. That is questionable. See United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co., 310 U. S. 150, 250 (1940). But whether we have yet done so or not, the controlling point is that a logical and consistent application of Turner demands that proof of alternative facts in conspiracy cases be treated the same as proof of alternative facts in other contexts. Imagine the not unlikely case of a prosecution for defrauding an insurer through two means and for conspiring to defraud the insurer through the same two means; and imagine a failure of proof with respect to one of the means. Petitioner’s proposal would produce the strange result of voiding a conviction on the conspiracy while sustaining a conviction on the substantive offense. We agree with the vast majority of Federal Courts of Appeals, which have made no exception to the Turner rule for multipleobject and multiple-overt-act conspiracies. See, e. g., United States v. Bilzerian, 926 F. 2d 1285, 1302 (CA2 1991), cert. denied, post, p. 813; United States v. Beverly, 913 F. 2d 337, 362–365 (CA7 1990) (case below); United States v. Johnson, 713 F. 2d 633, 645–646, and n. 15 (CA11 1983), cert. denied sub nom. Wilkins v. United States, 465 U. S. 1081 (1984); United States v. Wedelstedt, 589 F. 2d 339, 341–342 (CA8 1978), cert. denied, 442 U. S. 916 (1979); United States v. James, 528 F. 2d 999, 1014 (CA5), cert. denied sub nom. Austin v. United States, 429 U. S. 959 (1976); Moss v. United States, 132 F. 2d 875, 877–878 (CA6 1943).2 2 The only Court of Appeals we are aware of that adheres to the contrary rule is the Third Circuit, albeit without distinguishing, or even acknowledging the existence of, Turner. See United States v. Tarnopol, 561 F. 2d 466, 474–475 (1977). Many cases can be found, some of which are cited