## Facts

- Tyrone Townsend worked as a pimp for two adult women, C.B. and L.F., who initially agreed to prostitute for him.
- After some time, C.B. and L.F. tried to stop working for Townsend.
- Townsend kept the women under his control through threats and physical violence and by withholding their phones and government identification documents.
- While forcing them to continue prostituting, Townsend repeatedly transported C.B. and L.F. across state lines to meet clients and to engage in prostitution.
- A federal jury convicted Townsend of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion under 18 U.S.C. § 1591(a) and of persuading or coercing interstate travel to engage in prostitution under 18 U.S.C. § 2422(a).
- Townsend appealed, arguing that punishing him under both statutes for the same course of conduct violated the Double Jeopardy Clause because § 2422(a) was a lesser-included offense of § 1591(a).

## Issues

1. Whether Townsend’s convictions and punishments under both 18 U.S.C. § 1591(a) and 18 U.S.C. § 2422(a) violate the Double Jeopardy Clause because § 2422(a) is a lesser-included offense of § 1591(a).

## Decision

- The Eleventh Circuit affirmed Townsend’s convictions.
- The court rejected Townsend’s double-jeopardy argument.
- Applying the same-elements test, the court concluded that § 1591(a) and § 2422(a) each require proof of an element the other does not, so § 2422(a) is not a lesser-included offense of § 1591(a).
- Because the statutes define separate offenses, cumulative convictions and punishments did not violate Double Jeopardy.

## Legal Principles

- The Double Jeopardy Clause bars multiple punishments for the same offense unless Congress has authorized cumulative punishment.
- Whether two convictions constitute the “same offense” generally turns on the *Blockburger* same-elements test: two crimes are distinct if each requires proof of a fact (an element) the other does not.
- The *Blockburger* analysis compares statutory elements, not the overlap in evidence or the similarity of the defendant’s conduct.
- 18 U.S.C. § 1591(a) (sex trafficking) requires proof that the defendant recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, obtained, or maintained a person for a commercial sex act, knowing that force, threats of force, fraud, or coercion would be used (or that the person was a minor), and includes a nexus to interstate or foreign commerce.
- 18 U.S.C. § 2422(a) requires proof that the defendant knowingly persuaded, induced, enticed, or coerced a person to travel in interstate or foreign commerce with intent that the person engage in prostitution or other criminal sexual activity.
- Because § 1591(a) does not require persuading interstate travel and § 2422(a) does not require participation in a commercial sex-trafficking scheme involving force, fraud, or coercion (or a minor) and the commerce element framed in § 1591(a), the offenses are separate for Double Jeopardy purposes.

## Conclusion

The Eleventh Circuit held that Townsend’s convictions under both 18 U.S.C. § 1591(a) and 18 U.S.C. § 2422(a) did not violate Double Jeopardy because the statutes require different elements and therefore punish separate offenses even when based on the same general course of conduct.


United States v. Townsend, 521 Fed. Appx. 904 (2013)