Supreme Court rules Genovese associate committed a violent act
Whether attempted murder rose to a crime of violence split the Supreme Court 7-2 on Friday, with the majority finding that an associate of the infamous Genovese crime family committed a violent act despite his unsuccessful murder-for-hire plot.
In a 7-2 ruling, the justices ruled that Salvatore Delligatti’s attempted murder plot was a crime of violence.
“Delligatti insists that his position — that murder is not a crime of violence — is not as outlandish as it sounds,” Justice Clarence Thomas, a George H.W. Bush appointee, wrote for the majority.
Thomas said Delligatti’s argument defied precedent, congressional intent and logic.
“Intentional murder is the prototypical ‘crime of violence,’ and it has long been understood to incorporate liability for both act and omission,” Thomas wrote.
Justices Neil Gorsuch, a Donald Trump appointee, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Joe Biden appointee, dissented.
Delligatti planned to murder Joseph Bonelli, a local “bully” suspected of threatening the Genovese family’s gambling business. He gave his partner $5,000 and a .38 revolver to kill Bonelli, but police intercepted the accomplice and several members of the Crips gang before the crime took place.
A jury convicted Delligatti on six charges including conspiring to murder for hire, operating an illegal gambling business, racketeering and attempted murder. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Violent crime carries a mandatory minimum sentence under the Violent Crimes in Aid of Racketeering Act. Facing an additional six years in prison, Delligatti sought to convince the court that his crimes fell short of the statute’s use of force requirement because his murder plot failed.
The high court disagreed, finding that the firearms sentencing enhancement applied when an individual intends to cause bodily injury — whether or not those intentions materialize.
Thomas said it is impossible to deliberately cause physical harm without the use of physical force. Delligatti’s second-degree murder conviction proved that he intentionally caused the death of another person.
Delligatti can’t escape that conclusion under harm by omission, the court ruled, because a person can use something by deliberate inaction, such as using the rain to wash a car by leaving it parked on the street.
“The knowing or intentional causation of injury or death, whether by act or omission, necessarily involves the use of physical force against another person,” Thomas wrote.
Gorsuch chastised the majority for diverging from the statute’s text, arguing that the ruling was too broad. A lifeguard who sees someone struggling to swim and does nothing to save them, Gorsuch claimed, could now be convicted of a crime of violence if the person drowned.
“In cases like that, prosecutors can prevail simply by showing that a defendant did nothing when he had a legal duty to do something,” Gorsuch wrote. “And because a defendant can be convicted of the crime without proof that he used, attempted to use, or threatened to use physical force against anyone or anything at all, New York’s offense cannot qualify as a crime of violence.”
Gorsuch said the decision “comes up short on every count,” neglecting definitional terms, ignoring contextual clues and misinterpreting precedent. He added that his position didn’t guarantee a lighter sentence for Delligatti because the judges have imposed a sentence of up to 28 years.
“With or without a §924(c)(1) enhancement, those convicted of serious offenses in our federal criminal justice system routinely face serious sentences and judges amply equipped with the means to issue them,” Gorsuch wrote.
https://www.courthousenews.com/supreme-court-rebukes-genovese-crime-family-associate-finding-attempted-murder-is-violent/
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