Burrage v. United States, No. 12-7515:
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear argument on whether one can be held strictly liable when you distribute illegal drugs to a person and that person dies even though you could not forsee death happening or when there is an issue about the drugs being the sole cause of the death. The Federal crime of Distribution of Drugs Causing Death carries a minimum mandatory 20 year prison sentence.
Issues:
… (1) Whether the crime of distribution of drugs causing death under 21
U.S.C. § 841 is a strict liability crime, without a foreseeability or
proximate cause requirement; and (2) whether a person can be convicted for
distribution of heroin causing death utilizing jury instructions which
allow a conviction when the heroin that was distributed “contributed to,”
death by “mixed drug intoxication,” but was not the sole cause of death of
a person.
