Where the trial court properly instructs the jury to make special findings under Apprendi v. New Jersey (2000) 530 U.S. 466, but the jury fails to reach a verdict on those findings, the defendants are not entitled to an acquittal. Instead, the court then has the authority to make its own sentencing determinations, so long as it does not exceed the maximum sentence authorized by the jury’s verdict. The defendants argued that the special allegations at issue also implicated their guilt of the underlying offense, but the Ninth Circuit held that the failure to reach a verdict on the special allegations did not require an acquittal of the substantive offenses, and further held that the district court was permitted to make its own sentencing findings so long as those findings did not subject the defendants to a term longer than that authorized by the jury’s verdict.