Source: http://openjurist.org/309/f3d/377
Timestamp: 2014-08-27 21:14:37
Document Index: 217909994

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 841', '§ 841', '§ 2', '§ 841', '§ 2255', '§ 841', '§ 841', '§ 841']

309 F3d 377 United States v. Leachman | OpenJurist
309 F. 3d 377 - United States v. Leachman	Home309 f3d 377 united states v. leachman
309 F3d 377 United States v. Leachman 309 F.3d 377
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,v.Marc Milton LEACHMAN, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 01-5494.
Argued July 16, 2002.
Decided and Filed October 9, 2002.
Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc Denied December 18, 2002.
Terry M. Cushing (argued and briefed), Alexander T. Taft, Jr. (briefed), Asst. U.S. Attys., Office of U.S. Atty., Louisville, KY, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Marc Milton Leachman, Lexington, KY, pro se.
Defendant-Appellant Marc Milton Leachman appeals from the judgment entered on September 7, 2000, in the United States District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, sentencing him to 120 months following a guilty plea to four counts arising out of a home marijuana-growing operation, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 and 846.
On appeal, Leachman claims his sentence is unconstitutional under Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), because his mandatory minimum sentencing range was determined by an amount of drugs not proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Leachman's argument fails for two reasons.
First, in June of this year, the United States Supreme Court held, contrary to the precedent of this Court, that the constitutional rights prescribed in Apprendi apply only to factors that extend a defendant's sentence beyond the statutory maximum, and not to those that increase the statutory mandatory minimum. Harris v. U.S., ___ U.S. ___, 122 S.Ct. 2406, 153 L.Ed.2d 524 (2002).
Second, even had the Supreme Court not decided Harris, Leachman had knowingly and voluntarily waived his rights to a jury and to proof beyond a reasonable doubt, in regard to the amount of drugs. He affected a waiver, first, by pleading guilty to an indictment properly charging the amount of drugs as an element of his offense; and second, by expressly agreeing to be bound by the judge's determination of the amount.
Moreover, the judge did not commit plain error when, at Leachman's sentencing hearing, he shifted the burden of proof to Leachman, because the error did not substantially affect Leachman's rights.
Accordingly, we reject Leachman's contentions and affirm the sentence imposed by the district court.
On October 26, 1998, Hardin County, Kentucky police officers executed a search warrant for Leachman's residence, 625 Woodlawn Drive, in Bloomfield, Kentucky. The warrant was based primarily on information from an informant that there was a substantial marijuana growing operation taking place in the home.1 The officers noted further that there was an extraordinary amount of electricity being consumed at the residence, indicating the potential for such an operation.2 The officers executed the warrant and seized over 1300 plants, over one kilogram of processed marijuana, two garbage bags containing a combined 1350 stalks, a number of marijuana stalks drying on a clothesline, and a significant amount of paraphernalia, such as scales, used in the growing of marijuana. Jacquelyn Mills, Leachman's co-defendant, was present, though Leachman was not.3 Nonetheless, Leachman's fingerprints were found around the house, including on much of the growing equipment.
A federal grand jury returned a three count indictment against both Defendants on February 1, 1999. The indictment charged each with one count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, one count of manufacturing 1366 marijuana plants ("Second Count"), and one count of possession with intent to distribute marijuana, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 and 846; as well as aiding and abetting each other in the manufacture and possession, under 18 U.S.C. § 2.
The officers returned on February 11, 1999 with an arrest warrant for Defendants. At this time, the officers found new marijuana plants and growing equipment on the upstairs balcony. The police discovered receipts evidencing the purchase of growing equipment from a store called New Earth, reputed to be in the business of selling drug manufacturing equipment. All such receipts were dated subsequent to the original search. The officers waited for and arrested Leachman and Mills.
A fourth charge of manufacturing marijuana, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a), based on this second operation, was added against Leachman only in a superseding indictment on January 19, 2000. Leachman initially pled not guilty, but subsequently changed his plea to guilty on all four counts, including the Second Count, which specified the amount of drugs.
A sentencing hearing was held on August 31, 2000, at which time the district court judge sentenced Leachman concurrently on all counts, based on the 1366 marijuana plants charged in the indictment. The judge imposed a prison sentence of 120 months followed by five years of supervised release. Leachman filed a notice of appeal on November 2, 2000, and it was denied as untimely. Leachman subsequently filed a habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. § 2255,4 citing ineffective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment for failure to timely file his notice of appeal, and requesting relief in the form of a delayed direct appeal. The judge granted the petition and a second notice of appeal was filed on April 18, 2001. This matter is now properly before this Court.
III. Standard of Review and Statutory Background
The first task in evaluating Leachman's Apprendi claim is to specify the proper standard of review. Leachman claims the judge erred as a matter of law in imposing his sentence. However, Leachman never raised his objection with the district court. Accordingly, we review this issue for plain error only. Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(b); see also U.S. v. Cotton, 535 U.S. 625, 122 S.Ct. 1781, 152 L.Ed.2d 860 (2002); Johnson v. U.S., 520 U.S. 461, 466-67, 117 S.Ct. 1544, 137 L.Ed.2d 718 (1997); U.S. v. Graham, 275 F.3d 490, 521 (6th Cir.2001). There is plain error only if there is an error that is plain, and it also affects the substantial rights of the defendant. Even so, we will act on the error only if it seriously affects the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of the judicial proceedings. See Cotton, 535 U.S. at ___, 122 S.Ct. at 1786.
Leachman was charged under 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 and 846, and sentenced under those statutes' penalty provision, 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A), which provides:
In the case of a violation of subsection (a) of this section involving 1000 kilograms or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of marijuana, or 1000 or more marijuana plants regardless of weight ... such person shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment which may not be less than ten years or more than life....
21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A)(vii) (emphasis added).5
Under the plain language of the statute, the 1366 plants with which Leachman was charged places him in the ten-year mandatory minimum range. At sentencing, in accordance with Leachman's plea, the judge found the amount of drugs by a preponderance of the evidence. Section 841(b)(1)(A) provides the maximum penalty for infractions involving 1000 or more marijuana plants is life imprisonment. Therefore, having found the threshold amount, the judge had a range of ten years to life within which he could sentence Leachman. The judge exercised his discretion and sentenced Leachman only to the minimum ten years.
Leachman alleges that the judge erred, under Apprendi, in calculating his mandatory minimum sentence because the judge impermissibly considered an amount of drugs never proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Leachman relies on the precedent of this Court and reads Apprendi and its progeny as declaring an absolute ban on enhancing a defendant's mandatory minimum sentence based on facts proved only by a preponderance of the evidence. Accordingly, he has extended Apprendi beyond enhancements of the statutory maximum to enhancements of the statutory minimum as well.
IV. Apprendi and Harris
In Apprendi, the Supreme Court held that "[o]ther than a fact of prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the pr