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Timestamp: 2019-11-15 07:20:52
Document Index: 307068287

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

FindACase™ | U.S. v. Shields
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. D.C. Docket No. 1:93-cr-248-01-RCF. DISTRICT JUDGE: FREEMAN, RICHARD C.
Before Tjoflat, Chief Judge, Kravitch, Hatchett, Anderson, Edmondson, Cox, Birch, Dubina, Black, Carnes and Barkett, Circuit Judges. Kravitch, Circuit Judges, concurring
The district court credited the testimony of the law enforcement officers over Shields's testimony, finding that the root systems were the remains of 26 marijuana plants, and that Shields was responsible for a total of 53 marijuana plants. The court concluded that Shields's guidelines range was 33 to 41 months imprisonment, and sentenced him to 33 months imprisonment. Shields appeals his sentence.
Shields's primary argument on this appeal is that the district court misapplied 21 U.S.C. § 841 and U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1 when it calculated his sentence using the number of the harvested plants rather than the weight of the marijuana derived from those plants.*fn1 Shields failed to object to his sentence on this ground at his sentencing hearing. But the district court failed to elicit objections from the parties at the conclusion of the sentencing hearing, as required by United States v. Jones, 899 F.2d 1097, 1102-03 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 906, 112 L. Ed. 2d 230, 111 S. Ct. 275 (1990), overruled on other grounds, United States v. Morrill, 984 F.2d 1136 (1993) (en banc), and the panel concluded that this was a proper case for the exercise of the court's discretion to address on the merits an argument raised for the first time on appeal. Shields, 49 F.3d at 709. Both parties ask us to address the merits of this issue. We elect to do so, and therefore need not decide whether the panel correctly concluded that the court must either address this issue on its merits or vacate the sentence and remand for resentencing. Id. at 709 & n.5.
The base offense level for certain drug offenses is calculated using the Drug Quantity Table at § 2D1.1 of the sentencing guidelines. See United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual, § 2D1.1(c) (Nov. 1992). In the version of the guidelines which applied at the time of Shields's sentencing,*fn2 the Drug Quantity Table assigns offense levels for marijuana offenses according to the weight of marijuana measured in grams or kilograms. For offenses involving marijuana plants, the number of plants is converted to weight using an "equivalency provision," which reads:
U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(c) n. *.*fn3 The equivalency ratio for offenses involving more than 50 plants (one plant equals one kilogram marijuana) was derived from the statute that sets mandatory minimum penalties for offenses involving marijuana and marijuana plants. U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1 comment. (backg'd); see 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A)(B)(D) (1994) (setting, for example, a ten-year mandatory minimum for offenses involving at least 1000 kilograms of marijuana or 1000 marijuana plants). The equivalency ratio for offenses involving less than 50 plants (one plant equals 100 grams marijuana) was intended to approximate the average actual yield of a marijuana plant. U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1 comment. (backg'd). We have held that there is a reasonable basis for penalizing offenses involving 50 or ...