Title: Ex Parte Bohannon

State: alabama

Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court

Document:

564 So. 2d 854 (1988)
Ex parte Donald Ray BOHANNON.
Re Donald Bohannon
v.
State.
87-59.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
July 29, 1988.
James M. Byrd, Mobile, for petitioner.
Don Siegelman, Atty. Gen., and James B. Prude, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.
ADAMS, Justice.
The defendant, Donald Ray Bohannon, was convicted of possessing in excess of 2.2 pounds of marijuana in violation of Ala. Code 1975, § 20-2-80. The trial court sentenced Bohannon to ten years in the state penitentiary and fined him $25,000.00. The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction, 515 So. 2d 153 (1987), and we granted certiorari. We reverse.
Bohannon was arrested after the Mobile City Police searched his mobile home pursuant to a search warrant and found a number of bags of a green leafy plant presumed to be marijuana. A Mobile County grand jury indicted Bohannon, charging that:
Section 20-2-80(1) provides the following:
Except as authorized in chapter 2, Title 20:
*855 Bohannon moved to dismiss the indictment on the ground that it failed to "fully and properly advise [him] of the offense he [was] called upon to defend." The court denied that motion and subsequently denied Bohannon's motion to suppress certain statements made at the time of his arrest and the physical evidence obtained during the search.
Bohannon waived his right to a jury trial. At trial, Clarence Willis, a toxicologist with the Mobile Police Crime Lab, testified about the tests he conducted on the evidence obtained in the search (specifically, State's Exhibit 3).[1] He testified that the bags contained both green plant material and seeds. Furthermore, he testified that he had emptied the plant material into a pre-weighed pan and determined that the weight of the plant material and seeds togetherexcluding the pan's weightwas 3.5 pounds. On voir dire, Willis testified as follows:
On direct examination, Willis's testimony continued:
The court also questioned the witness with regard to the exhibit:
On cross-examination, the questioning of Willis revealed the following:
On redirect, Willis testified that he did not conduct any tests on the seeds to determine if they were infertile, and if they were, how they became infertile.
Finally, on recross, Willis stated that his understanding of the "legal" definition of marijuana was that it was "cannabis sativa containing THC, and that it's necessary to show that it contains tetrahydrocannabinols."
The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and we granted certiorari. Although several issues were presented for review, one issue is dispositive of this case: Was there sufficient evidence to prove that Bohannon was in possession of over 2.2 pounds of marijuana, in violation of Ala. Code 1975, § 20-2-80?
This Court has recently held that in order to convict a person for trafficking in marijuana pursuant to Ala.Code 1975, § 20-2-80, the State has the burden of proving that the defendant possessed in excess of 2.2 pounds of the drug. Ex parte Sellers, 519 So. 2d 1292 (Ala.1987); see also Borden v. State, 523 So. 2d 508 (Ala.Crim. App.1987); Mulhern v. State, 494 So. 2d 787 (Ala.Crim.App.1986).
For purposes of § 20-2-80, marijuana is defined in Ala.Code 1975, § 20-2-2(15), as follows:
In Sellers, this Court summarily reversed a conviction under § 20-2-80, citing as authority the decisions in Borden, supra, and Mulhern, supra. In Mulhern the Court of Criminal Appeals reversed a conviction under § 20-2-80 because the toxicology laboratory report "`disclosed the presence of marijuana' but failed to state the quantity of marijuana found within the plant material." Mulhern, 494 So. 2d  at 789. In Borden, supra, the Court of Criminal Appeals also reversed a conviction under § 20-2-80 because there was insufficient evidence of the weight of the marijuana. Therefore, pursuant to our decision in Sellers the State's burden in the instant case is not simply to prove that the plant material and seeds it weighed contained marijuana; rather, the State must also prove the weight of the marijuana (as the term is defined by § 20-2-2(15)) contained in the plant material.
The State asserts that it met its burden of proving that Bohannon possessed in excess of 2.2 pounds of marijuana and that, pursuant to Dickerson v. State, 414 So. 2d 998 (Ala.Crim.App.1982), the burden shifted to the defendant to prove that some portion of the total weight was excluded *858 by the statute. Specifically, the State asserts that Willis's testimony that the substance he tested contained marijuana, and that it weighed in excess of 2.2 pounds, was sufficient to meet the statutory requirements. We disagree.
Dickerson, 414 So. 2d  at 1002 (cites omitted). But, in order for the burden to shift, the State must first prove that the defendant possessed in excess of 2.2 pounds of marijuana, as the term is defined in § 20-2-2(15).
The toxicologist, Willis, testified that the total weight of the green plant material and seeds was approximately 3.5 pounds and, in addition, that the green plant material and the seeds contained marijuana. Furthermore, he testified that the entire weight consisted of material containing THC, which he understood to be marijuana. However, on cross-examination, Willis's testimony revealed that the plant material he referred to as "marijuana" contained stems and seeds. Furthermore, on recross, when asked the legal definition of marijuana, Willis's response was that it was material containing THC. Sellers, Mulhern, and Borden clearly indicate that in order to prove that the defendant actually possessed in excess of 2.2 pounds of marijuana (as defined in § 20-2-2(15)), it is insufficient to state simply that the tested material contained THC. Willis's answer reflected a misunderstanding of the legal definition of marijuana, because § 20-2-2(15) specifically excludes certain parts of the plant, even though those parts may contain THC. Therefore, in light of the fact that Willis admitted that there were stems and seeds in the material that he weighed and the fact that Willis did not test the seeds to determine if they were sterile or infertile, there was insufficient evidence to prove that the green plant material contained in excess of 2.2 pounds of marijuana.
Furthermore, the toxicologist admitted that he had not tried to germinate the seeds and that there were some dried-out seeds and some infertile seeds. Section 20-2-2(15) excludes from the definition of marijuana any "sterilized" seeds. The distinction between "sterile" or "infertile" seeds and "sterilized" seeds was set forth in Dickerson, supra, which stated:
414 So. 2d  at 1002-03. Therefore, in order to prove that the material the toxicologist weighed contained in excess of 2.2 pounds of statutorily defined marijuana, the State must prove that the seeds were not "sterilized." The city toxicologist's testimony was that some of the seeds were probably infertile or non-germinating, but he did not test the seeds to determine if they were naturally infertile or artificially sterilized. Therefore, because the seeds were weighed with the plant material, and because it is possible that the seeds were artificially sterilized and thus not within the definition of the term "marijuana," the State failed to meet its burden of proving that the defendant possessed in excess of 2.2 pounds of marijuana.
Although several other issues have been raised on appeal, each is pretermitted by our decision to reverse the conviction due to the insufficiency of the evidence.
*859 For the foregoing reasons, the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals affirming the conviction is due to be, and it hereby is, reversed.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
TORBERT, C.J., and MADDOX, JONES, ALMON, SHORES, BEATTY and HOUSTON, JJ., concur.
[1]  There were other exhibits containing green plant material introduced at trial, but the only exhibit at issue on appeal is State's Exhibit No. 3 and its subparts.