United States v. Michael Anthony Duff, Mason P. Peck, Thomas Lee Ridley Iii, and Willi J. Hill

EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge.

But for the holding of Ray v. United States, 481 U.S. 736, 107 S.Ct. 2093, 95 L.Ed.2d 693 (1987), this would be a brief opinion. The only difficult issues concern defendants’ convictions for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. Because conspiracy convictions do not affect the sentence of persons convicted, as these were, of substantive offenses, U.S.S.G. § 3D1.2(b) and Application Note 4, the issues we must confront are essentially irrelevant to the outcome. Conspiracy charges do not affect the trial, either, except to complicate and prolong it. The coconspirator…