John O. Green v. United States

In a series of decisions from this Court, the reach and scope of conspiracies to defraud the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 were defined as including acts that abridged the functions of a federal agency. Petitioner Green’s case involves his prosecution for a conspiracy to defraud in violation of § 371, and jury instructions that sought to define the functions of the Internal Revenue Service, the federal agency in question in this case, were submitted to the trial court by the defense, but were not given. The absence of these instructions in the jury charge in Green’s case was the subject of Green’s appeal to the Fifth Circuit, but his conviction was affirmed by that court. The Question Presented is whether a trial court in a conspiracy to defraud prosecution premised on 18 U.S.C. § 371 must instruct the trial jury about the functions of the agency alleged to have been impeded.