Parvez Anjum Qureshi v. United States

Where the district court misinforms and erroneously instructs the jury as to the mens rea requirement for Title 21 U.S.C. § 841(a), in violation of Ruan v. United States, and thereby commits reversible error as to the substantive § 841(a) counts of conviction, can a conviction for conspiracy to unlawfully distribute or dispense controlled substances, in violation of Title 21 U.S.C. § 846, tried in the same proceedings, be affirmed notwithstanding the fact that the conspiracy jury instructions tracked verbatim the district court’s erroneous misstatement of law as to the mens rea requirement for § 841(a) (the underlying substantive offense and sole object of the conspiracy), rendering both instructions “inextricably intertwined”, and resulting in a jury charge that failed to require the jury to find, and the Government to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt the requisite culpable mental state?