Source: https://m.openjurist.org/158/f3d/662/united-states-v-barnes
Timestamp: 2019-11-23 01:58:41
Document Index: 315185544

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 130', '§ 841', '§ 841', '§ 841', '§ 1', '§ 5', '§ 1959', '§ 2', '§ 1', '§ 846', '§ 841', '§ 2255', '§ 841']

158 F. 3d 662 - United States v. Barnes
158 F3d 662 United States v. Barnes
158 F.3d 662
The defendant does not allege that he did not have sufficient time to prepare for the cross-examination through which this attack was mounted, nor does he suggest that, if we ordered a new trial, it would be anything more than a replay of the first. "In essence, appellant complains not of any harm but of denial of a form of discovery." United States v. Colson, 662 F.2d 1389, 1391 (11th Cir.1981). Under these circumstances, although we have little hesitancy in saying that a bill of particulars or other adequate disclosure is appropriate where a conspiracy count covers a complex series of events over a number of years, but provides only the bare bones of the charge, we have little difficulty in concluding that "substantial rights of his were [not] prejudiced by the denial," 1 Wright, Federal Practice and Procedure § 130, and that any error was harmless. Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(a); United States v. Yefsky, 994 F.2d 885, 894 (1st Cir.1993) (indictment that failed to satisfy Fed.R.Crim.P. 7(c)(1) was harmless where the defendant "had ample opportunity to rebut the government's charges").
The defendant argues that where (1) a conspiracy to possess different controlled substances is alleged in a single count of an indictment and (2) the applicable mandatory minimum sentence depends on which controlled substance the defendant was guilty of conspiring to possess, a general verdict of guilty only authorizes the lowest mandatory minimum. If the defendant here had been convicted of conspiracy to possess a controlled substance that involved cocaine instead of crack, the mandatory minimum sentence would have been ten years instead of twenty. 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(B). More accurately, the prescribed mandatory minimum would have been five, which the defendant's prior felony drug conviction would double to ten. If the defendant had been convicted of conspiracy with the intent to distribute 7.5 grams of heroin, he would have faced a maximum sentence of thirty years, 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(C); if he had been convicted of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute marijuana, he would have faced a maximum sentence of ten years, 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(D). Because of the amounts of heroin or marijuana, there would not have been a mandatory minimum sentence.
The defendant argues that for the purpose of sentencing he should be deemed to have been convicted only of conspiracy to possess marijuana and that the maximum sentence should not have exceeded ten years. While we do not accept the argument that the defendant could only be sentenced for conspiracy to possess marijuana, the thrust of his argument is sustained by our holding in United States v. Orozco-Prada, 732 F.2d 1076 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 845, 105 S.Ct. 154, 83 L.Ed.2d 92 (1984). The defendant there was charged with conspiracy to possess cocaine and marijuana and sentenced to eight years in prison. The sentence exceeded the maximum authorized for conspiracy to possess marijuana (which was five years), although it did not exceed the maximum for conspiracy to possess cocaine (which was fifteen). We held that the sentence was improper because, "in the absence of a special verdict, there was no way ... to know whether the jury intended to convict Eduardo Orozco for a cocaine-related conspiracy, for a marijuana-related conspiracy, or for a conspiracy involving both drugs." Id. at 1083. The remedy we chose gave the United States Attorney the option of retrying the defendant (and seeking a special verdict if he chose not to amend the indictment) or agreeing to have the defendant resentenced to the maximum permitted for conspiracy to possess marijuana. Id. at 1084.
The application of Orozco-Prada here would suggest that the defendant should have been sentenced pursuant to the penalty prescribed for a defendant who conspired to possess 7.5 grams of heroin, an offense that carries no mandatory minimum sentence and that carries a maximum sentence of thirty years. Of course, even if this scheme is followed here, it would not prevent Judge Nevas from considering other offenses involving the "same course of conduct" that he found that the defendant committed. See Sentencing Guidelines § 1B1.3 (a)(2). Because "[t]he 'same course of conduct' concept ... looks to whether the defendant repeats the same type of criminal activity over time .... [and] does not require that acts be 'connected together' by common participants or by an overall scheme," United States v. Perdomo, 927 F.2d 111, 115 (2d Cir.1991), the Guidelines sentencing range could very likely reach the 210-262 period that Judge Nevas determined was applicable here. The defendant, however, would not face the mandatory 240-month sentence that Judge Nevas was forced to impose based on the assumption that the defendant was convicted of conspiracy to possess more than 50 grams of crack.
United States v. Edwards, 105 F.3d 1179, 1180 (7th Cir.1997), aff'd, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 1475, 140 L.Ed.2d 703 (1998).
While Judge Easterbrook declared that all of these decisions were wrong, his analysis confused a judge's role in calculating the guidelines with that in applying the mandatory minimum sentence. Judge Easterbrook observed that "under the Sentencing Guidelines, the judge alone determines which drug was distributed, and in what quantity." Edwards, 105 F.3d at 1180. Moreover, in so doing, the "relevant conduct" rule requires a judge "to consider drugs that were part of the same plan or course of conduct, whether or not they were specified in the indictment." Id. Accordingly, a judge "may base a sentence on kinds and quantities of drugs that were not considered by the jury" and the judge may "even base a sentence on events underlying charges for which the jury returned a verdict of acquittal." Id. at 1180-81. This analysis led Judge Easterbrook to conclude that "[w]hat a jury believes about which drug the conspirators distributed therefore is not conclusive--and a verdict that fails to answer a question committed to the judge does not restrict the judge's sentencing options." Id. at 1181.
Id. at 1581. See United States v. Lewis, 110 F.3d 417, 422-23 (7th Cir.1997), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 149, 139 L.Ed.2d 95 (1997); United States v. Estrada, 42 F.3d 228, 232 & n. 4 (4th Cir.1994); United States v. Winston, 37 F.3d 235, 240-41 (6th Cir.1994); contra United States v. Reyes, 40 F.3d 1148, 1150-51 (10th Cir.1994). The problem with the present case, as Orozco-Prada makes clear, is that we cannot be sure of "the conduct which actually resulted in a conviction."
Our analysis of Judge Easterbrook's opinion in Edwards is not at odds with the Supreme Court's affirmance of Edwards. The Supreme Court simply held, as we do, that for the purposes of the Sentencing Guidelines, it is for the judge to determine "whether crack, as well as cocaine [or heroin], was involved in the offense-related activities." Edwards v. United States, --- U.S. ----, ----, 118 S.Ct. 1475, 1477, 140 L.Ed.2d 703 (1998). Because it was of no consequence to the ultimate sentence in Edwards, the Supreme Court did not address the defendants' argument that "the drug statutes, as well as the Constitution, required the judge to assume that the jury convicted them of a conspiracy involving only cocaine." Id. (emphasis in original). Justice Breyer observed that "petitioners' statutory and constitutional claims would make a difference if it were possible to argue, say, that the sentences imposed exceeded the maximum that the statutes permit for a cocaine-only conspiracy[;][t]hat is because a maximum sentence set by statute trumps a higher sentence set forth in the Guidelines." Id. Moreover, although he did not say so, the same would have been true of a mandatory minimum sentence. See Almendarez-Torres v. United States, --- U.S. ----, ----, 118 S.Ct. 1219, 1231, 140 L.Ed.2d 350 (1998) ("[T]he risk of unfairness to a particular defendant is no less, and may well be greater, when a mandatory minimum sentence, rather than a permissive maximum sentence, is at issue."). Nevertheless, because the Guidelines sentencing range in the Edwards case exceeded the mandatory minimum and was less than the permissive maximum, Brief for United States at 17 & n. 6, Edwards v. United States, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 1475, 140 L.Ed.2d 703 (1998) (No. 96-8732), the Supreme Court did not need to resolve the issue that is presented in this case and that is resolved by our decision in Orozco-Prada.
The United States Attorney, however, argues that Orozco-Prada has been undermined--if not implicitly overruled--by our own cases that hold that the weight and quantity of a controlled substance are not elements of the offense of which the defendant was convicted. Because it is for the judge and not the jury to determine the nature of the drug that a defendant possessed or conspired to possess, the trial judge may resolve the ambiguity in the verdict. See United States v. Reyes, 13 F.3d 638, 640 (2d Cir.1994); United States v. Campuzano, 905 F.2d 677, 679-80 & n. 4 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 947, 111 S.Ct. 363, 112 L.Ed.2d 326 (1990). The cases on which the United States relies do not undermine Orozco-Prada. They stand only for the proposition that, if a jury determines that a defendant possessed or conspired to possess a controlled substance, then it is for the judge to resolve any dispute about the nature and quantity of the drug the defendant possessed or conspired to possess.
United States v. Lewis, 113 F.3d 487 (3d Cir.1997), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 1679, 140 L.Ed.2d 816 (1998), upon which the United States Attorney relies, is a case in point. The evidence showed that a confidential informant met the defendant Lewis who offered to sell him crack cocaine. After obtaining permission from the Drug Enforcement Administration officials, the confidential informant initiated a purchase of cocaine from Lewis. Some 75 dime bags of cocaine were supplied by Lewis. Ultimately, a laboratory analysis showed that these dime bags contained 7.5 grams of cocaine base.
Lewis's only defense was that he had sold the informant cocaine instead of cocaine base. The jury found Lewis guilty, although it was not possible to "ascertain from the verdict whether it concluded that Lewis distributed cocaine base or powder cocaine or, indeed, even whether it reached a unanimous conclusion on this point." Lewis, 113 F.3d at 489. Nevertheless, the trial judge found that the substance was cocaine base and imposed a more severe mandatory minimum for this offense. Id. The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held correctly that this was an issue for the judge to decide. Id. at 490.
While it is arguable that a properly instructed jury would have found that the purchase of cocaine and heroin from Manny Roman and Richard Morales constituted a single conspiracy, the jury was not properly instructed.2 In any event, there is an ample factual and legal basis for concluding that the cocaine/heroin conspiracy was separate and distinct from the acts Barnes had taken to facilitate the crack distribution conspiracy of the Latin Kings. Indeed, unlike the cocaine/heroin conspiracy, the defendant's guilt with respect to the facilitation of the crack distribution conspiracy did not even require proof that he actually conspired to possess crack with the intent to distribute it. Instead, he need only have conspired to aid and abet the distribution of it by the Latin Kings. See United States v. Perry, 643 F.2d 38, 46-47 (2d Cir.1981), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 835, 102 S.Ct. 138, 70 L.Ed.2d 115 (1981); American Law Institute, Model Penal Code and Commentaries § 5.03, Comment 2(c)(iv) at 421 (1985)("[I]f the purpose of the agreement is to facilitate commission of a crime, the actor need not agree 'to commit' the crime .... It is enough that he agree to aid in its planning or commission, thus comprehending accessorial participation if the requisite consensus is involved.").3
United States v. Malpeso, 115 F.3d 155 (2d Cir.1997), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 2366, 141 L.Ed.2d 735 (1998), upon which the United States Attorney also relies, does not compel a contrary result. The defendant there was convicted of Count One of an indictment that charged him "with conspiracy to murder members of the Persico faction of the Colombo Family for the purpose of gaining entrance to and maintaining and increasing their positions in the Colombo family, an enterprise engaged in racketeering activity, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1959(a)(5)." Id. at 161.
The maximum sentence the defendant faced in Malpeso was ten years, there was no mandatory minimum, and the evidence was sufficient to establish that he conspired to commit at least one of the murders alleged as an object of the conspiracy. The base level for the crime of conspiracy to commit a single murder is 28, which carries a Guidelines sentencing range of 78-97 months. U.S. Sentencing Guidelines § 2A1.5. Consistent with our rulings in narcotics cases, we held that the Constitution did not preclude the application of a guideline sentence (within the range set by the offense of conviction) that was based on other murders that the judge found the defendant conspired to commit in furtherance of the crime of conviction. 115 F.3d at 167-68 (applying U.S.S.G. § 1B1.2(d), comment. (n.5)). Indeed, we expressly observed in Malpeso, as the Supreme Court did in Edwards, that the sentencing judge's determination would have no effect on the statutory sentence applicable. Id. at 168. Unlike Malpeso, the issue in the present case is whether the defendant was guilty of the offense that carries the penalty mandated by the statute defining the offense and not whether the judge is free to consider other acts in fixing an appropriate range under the Sentencing Guidelines.
The United States Attorney also argues that Orozco-Prada has been effectively overruled by Griffin v. United States, 502 U.S. 46, 112 S.Ct. 466, 116 L.Ed.2d 371 (1991). Griffin addressed the entirely separate issue "whether, in a federal prosecution, a general guilty verdict on a multiple-object conspiracy charge must be set aside if the evidence is inadequate to support conviction as to one of the objects." Id. at 47, 112 S.Ct. 466. The holding that such a verdict need not be set aside is based on the premise that jurors using "their own intelligence and expertise," id. at 59, 112 S.Ct. 466, will not convict " 'on a ground that was not supported by adequate evidence when there existed alternative grounds for which the evidence was sufficient.' " Id. at 59-60, 112 S.Ct. 466 (quoting United States v. Townsend, 924 F.2d 1385, 1414 (7th Cir.1991)).
We follow the holding in Griffin in refusing to vacate the conviction here because of the insufficiency of the evidence regarding the alleged conspiracy to possess marijuana. Griffin, however, does not address the problem of determining which of two or more possible statutory schemes applies where the evidence is sufficient to sustain a verdict as to two or more separate conspiracies underlying a single conspiracy count. Instead, the problem here is analogous to that presented where a count of an indictment charges two or more offenses. As Judge Feinberg wrote in United States v. Murray, 618 F.2d 892, 896 (2d Cir.1980), " [i]f an indictment is duplicitous, a general verdict of guilty will not reveal whether the jury found defendant guilty of only one crime and not the other, or guilty of both." While such a defect was found harmless in Murray, because the defendants "were sentenced as if they had violated only one of the statutes, each of which in this instance carries the same penalties," id. at 898, here we can render the error harmless only by permitting a sentence for the conspiracy carrying the lowest mandatory minimum and maximum sentence.
The applicability of this remedy is not undermined because Count Twenty-Seven (like the conspiracy count in Orozco-Prada ) does not charge the violation of more than one statute. "We have a case, instead, in which the count charges the violation of a single conspiracy statute [21 U.S.C. § 846], but where the conspiracy has two [or more] objects. We believe that this case raises the same problems of ascertaining juror intent that is at issue in counts charging the violation of multiple statutes." Orozco-Prada, 732 F.2d at 1084. Indeed, this analysis applies with particular force here, where--notwithstanding the single conspiracy alleged--the evidence suggests more than one agreement to possess a controlled substance with the intent to distribute it in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a).
We turn now to the two potential procedural forfeiture issues. The first is whether the defendant should be precluded from raising the sentencing issue here because he failed to ask for a special verdict. In Orozco-Prada we approved of the suggestion of the D.C. Circuit that it is "the government's responsibility to seek special verdicts." Id. at 1084 (citing Brown v. United States, 299 F.2d 438, 440 n. 3 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, 370 U.S. 946, 82 S.Ct. 1593, 8 L.Ed.2d 812 (1962)). Under these circumstances, the failure of the defendant to seek a special verdict does not prevent him from raising the issue on appeal. Accord United States v. Garcia, 37 F.3d 1359, 1370 (9th Cir.1994), cert. denied, 514 U.S. 1067, 115 S.Ct. 1699, 131 L.Ed.2d 562 (1995).
The second possible procedural forfeiture arises from the fact that the issue of an appropriate mandatory minimum sentence was raised for the first time at oral argument. "Normally, we will not consider arguments raised for the first time in a reply brief, let alone [at or] after oral argument." Keefe v. Shalala, 71 F.3d 1060, 1066 n. 2 (2d Cir.1995); United States v. Kessler, 449 F.2d 1315, 1317 (2d Cir.1971). This rule, formulated for orderly briefing and argument of appeals, is not jurisdictional. We decline to apply it here for reasons similar to those in United States v. Restrepo, 986 F.2d 1462 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 843, 114 S.Ct. 130, 126 L.Ed.2d 94 (1993). The defendant there argued "in one of the 28 footnotes appended to his 50-page brief" that a sixty-two month sentence was two months longer than the maximum sentence for the crime of which he was convicted. Id. at 1463. This argument was understandably overlooked when the appeal was decided, and the defendant moved for reargument.
Reargument was granted and the sentence was vacated notwithstanding the rule that "[w]e do not consider an argument mentioned only in a footnote to be adequately raised or preserved for appellate review." Id. Nonetheless, "because the sentence imposed [t]here was 'in excess of the maximum authorized by law' and, therefore, expressly made subject to correction under 28 U.S.C. § 2255, we t[ook] the opportunity afforded to us by counsel ... to require the district court to correct the sentence, without the necessity of defendant's bringing an additional proceeding." Id.
We likewise find to be without merit defendant's argument that Judge Nevas should have stayed the trial for three months which would "have allowed the defendant the benefit of the new Qualified [Jury] Wheel with its updated motor vehicle and voters' records." Def. Br. 30. Because the application was denied, defendant alleges that he "was forced to proceed under the old wheel and, as a result, was denied a reasonable opportunity for a representative jury venire." Id. We agree with the United States Attorney that the defendant's challenge to the "old wheel" is foreclosed by United States v. Rioux, 97 F.3d 648 (2d Cir.1996), and United States v. Fields, 113 F.3d 313 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 434, 139 L.Ed.2d 334 (1997).
The United States Attorney is given the option of retrying the defendant (and seeking a special verdict if he chooses not to amend the indictment) or having him resentenced. The sentencing range would be consistent with the sentence prescribed in 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(C) for conspiracy to possess heroin, the controlled substance carrying the lowest mandatory minimum and permissive maximum penalty. This is the procedure followed in Orozco-Prada. Accordingly, the mandate is withheld for thirty days to permit the United States Attorney to advise us whether he is prepared to consent to the resentencing. If so, the mandate affirming the judgment of conviction and remanding for resentencing will issue; if not, the judgment of conviction will be vacated and a new trial ordered.
The Assistant United States Attorney conceded that the "second half" of the conspiracy to purchase cocaine and heroin from Manny Roman and Richard Morales, i.e., Barnes's agreement to distribute crack and heroin with Donafer Davis, was not alleged to come within the ambit of Count Twenty-Seven. Tr. 19-20 (April 4, 1996)("To the extent Mr. Barnes was participating in another crack cocaine or heroin conspiracy with some of those other witnesses [Donafer Davis and Dwayne Jones, who did not testify because of illness], he may be held accountable for that at some point in the future but that's not what this case is about."). The jury was never told that the cocaine/heroin conspiracy they were considering was limited in this way
The jury instruction here was consistent with this statement of the law. See Tr. 189-90 (April 10, 1996) ("If ... a conspiracy existed and if a defendant knew of the conspiracy and purposefully took some part ... in carrying it into effect, he became part of it and may be found guilty of conspiracy.")