Source: http://openjurist.org/149/f3d/1192/united-states-v-cox
Timestamp: 2015-01-29 16:46:24
Document Index: 509495108

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2255', '§ 2253', '§ 846', '§ 5861', '§ 846', '§ 2255', '§ 2255']

149 F3d 1192 United States v. Cox | OpenJurist
149 F. 3d 1192 - United States v. Cox	Home149 f3d 1192 united states v. cox
149 F3d 1192 United States v. Cox 149 F.3d 1192
98 CJ C.A.R. 2984
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,v.Clifford Wesley COX; Lyndell Lloyd Cox, Defendants-Appellants.
No. 97-6254.
Defendants Clifford Wesley Cox and Lyndell L. Cox appeal the district court's denial of their joint 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion to vacate, set aside, or correct their sentences for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. We have previously granted defendants' application for a certificate of appealability, see 28 U.S.C. § 2253(c), and we now reverse and remand the case for further proceedings.
Defendants pled guilty in 1988, and were sentenced in 1989, to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 and unlawful manufacture of a destructive device in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 5861. The district court sentenced defendants Clifford Cox to nineteen years, seven months, and Lyndell Cox to twenty years' imprisonment, on the § 846 methamphetamine count, based upon forty-eight pounds of methamphetamine. Their sentences were affirmed on direct appeal. See United States v. Cox, Nos. 89-6087 and 89-6088 (10th Cir. Mar. 28, 1990) (unpublished disposition).
The government seized methamphetamine and phenyl-2-propanone (p2p), another controlled substance, from defendants' premises. The government's testing of the methamphetamine did not indicate the type of methamphetamine involved, nor did the government present any evidence at sentencing demonstrating the type of methamphetamine possessed by defendants. Under the sentencing guidelines applicable to defendants' offenses, sentencing for d-methamphetamine was substantially more severe than that for l-methamphetamine, and the guidelines did not address a substance referred to as d,l-methamphetamine.1 Defendants' counsel failed to raise this issue at sentencing or on direct appeal.
In their § 2255 motion, defendants assert that their counsel's failure to require the government to prove the type of methamphetamine involved in the conspiracy constituted ineffective assistance of counsel and deprived them of their due process rights. Defendants assert that the methamphetamine seized was l-methamphetamine, and that it could not have been d-methamphetamine because l-ephedrine, which they claim is a necessary precursor chemical to the manufacture of d-methamphetamine, was not found at their premises.
The government does not claim that the drug involved was d-methamphetamine. However, it argues that sufficient evidence was presented at the sentencing hearing for the district court in the § 2255 proceeding to determine that the type of methamphetamine involved in the conspiracy was d,l-methamphetamine. The government points to expert testimony at the sentencing hearing that p2p was seized from defendants' premises and that p2p is used to produce methamphetamine. Although the testimony at sentencing did not indicate what type of methamphetamine p2p produces, the government asserts that the p2p method produces d,l-methamphetamine. Because p2p was seized from defendants, the government argues the methamphetamine involved must have been d,l-methamphetamine. The government argues d,l-methamphetamine should be treated the same as d-methamphetamine for sentencing purposes, citing United States v. Decker, 55 F.3d 1509 (10th Cir.1995).
Defendants respond that, while it is possible to manufacture d,l-methamphetamine from p2p, they were prepared to present expert testimony that it is equally possible to manufacture l-methamphetamine from p2p. They also point out, correctly, that there is no evidence in the record that p2p was found in the methamphetamine seized. They argue, therefore, that the mere seizure of p2p from their premises is insufficient circumstantial evidence from which to conclude the methamphetamine involved in their offenses was d,l-met