Opinion ID: 520307
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Sentence Enhancement Under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 924(e)(1)

Text: 34 Towne also was convicted on Counts 6 and 8 of the indictment, both of which charged a violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 922(g)(1). A later section of title 18 provides in relevant part: 35 In the case of a person who violates section 922(g) of this title and has three previous convictions ... for a violent felony ..., such person shall be ... imprisoned not less than fifteen years, and, notwithstanding any other provision of law, the court shall not suspend the sentence of, or grant a probationary sentence to, such person with respect to the conviction ..., and such person shall not be eligible for parole with respect to the sentence imposed under this subsection. 36 18 U.S.C. Sec. 924(e)(1) (emphasis added). In 1976, Towne was indicted and convicted in New Hampshire on two felony counts--one for aggravated felonious sexual assault and one for kidnapping. Both felonies were committed in connection with an extended attack upon a single victim in July of 1976. Thereafter, in 1983, as discussed above, the defendant pleaded guilty in Vermont state court to two new felony counts--again, one for sexual assault and one for kidnapping. And, again, both felonies were committed in connection with a prolonged attack upon a single female victim. The district judge herein determined that Towne's convictions for kidnapping and sexual assault in each of these two cases qualified as four separate felony convictions for purposes of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 924(e)(1), although in each case the two felonies were committed during a single criminal episode which involved a continuous course of offense behavior directed against a single victim. 680 F.Supp. at 691. Since the district judge considered each of the felony convictions in each of the criminal episodes to be independent of the others, he held that the four prior convictions triggered the enhanced penalty provision of Sec. 924(e)(1). 37 According to appellant, the district judge erred when he enhanced Towne's sentence under Sec. 924(e)(1) on the basis of these four prior convictions. Towne argues that in enacting Sec. 924(e)(1), Congress only sought to enhance the sentence of convicted persons who had been before the courts on three prior, separate occasions, and who had been convicted of violent felonies on each of those occasions. According to appellant, Congress did not intend Sec. 924(e)(1)'s enhanced penalty provisions to apply to the sentences of convicted defendants who had been convicted previously of committing multiple felonies during the course of fewer than three single criminal episodes. Hence, according to appellant, the district judge should not have enhanced his sentence because his four prior felony convictions arose out of only two episodes of criminal conduct, and not out of three separate episodes as is required under the statute. 38 The question presented by appellant is whether the statutory reference to three previous convictions in Sec. 924(e)(1) should be construed literally to mean any three felony convictions, regardless of whether the three predicate felonies were committed simultaneously during a single spasm of criminal activity; or whether it should be construed as a reference to the number of prior occasions on which a defendant has engaged in, and been convicted of, violent criminal conduct. Although the question presented is one of first impression in this Circuit, it has been fairly well-established in other circuits that Sec. 924(e)(1)'s reference to convictions pertains to single episodes of felonious criminal activity that are distinct in time, rather than literal convictions. See United States v. Gillies, 851 F.2d 492, 497 (1st Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 147, 102 L.Ed.2d 119 (1988); United States v. Harden, 846 F.2d 1229, 1232 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 264, 102 L.Ed.2d 252 (1988); United States v. Rush, 840 F.2d 580, 581 (8th Cir.1988); United States v. Wicks, 833 F.2d 192, 194 (9th Cir.1987), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 87, 102 L.Ed.2d 63 (1988); United States v. Petty, 828 F.2d 2, 3 (8th Cir.1987), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 108 S.Ct. 2827, 100 L.Ed.2d 928 (1988); United States v. Greene, 810 F.2d 999, 1000 (11th Cir.1986); see also Brief of United States Solicitor General filed in Opposition to Defendant's Petition for Certiorari at 5, in United States v. Wicks, No. 87-6807 (U.S.1988) (stating that every federal court of appeals that has considered the issue has adopted the multiple episodes approach, that there is no conflict among the circuit courts of appeals with respect to this issue, and that these courts have simply required that the criminal episodes be distinct in time). Therefore, we hold that the district court erred in enhancing Towne's sentence on the basis of the four felony convictions which arose out of his two prior attacks on women. 39 Although the plain language of Sec. 924 arguably supports the district court's literal construction of the statute, it is apparent from the statute's legislative history that literal adherence to the terms of Sec. 924(e)(1) would thwart the clear legislative goals underlying the subject Armed Career Criminal Act. In support of this conclusion, we rely not only on expressions of legislative intent in the Congress prior to Sec. 924's enactment, but also on recent indications that the Supreme Court and the United States Solicitor General have come to similar conclusions about the proper interpretation of Sec. 924(e)(1). 40 Two years ago, this issue was raised when a petition for certiorari was filed in the Supreme Court seeking review of the Eighth Circuit's decision in United States v. Petty, 798 F.2d 1157 (8th Cir.1986). In Petty, which involved the predecessor statute to Sec. 924(e)(1), 4 the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit had initially interpreted the statute as the U.S. Attorney's office now urges us to do and the court took into account the actual number of prior criminal convictions in determining whether to enhance the defendant's sentence. 798 F.2d at 1160. The Supreme Court granted certiorari and the Solicitor General filed a brief that took the opposite view. The Solicitor General's brief canvassed the statute's legislative history and attempted to demonstrate that Congress had intended its sentencing enhancement provision to apply only to recidivists and repeat offenders, and not to persons who commit several crimes at one time. The Supreme Court thereafter vacated the lower court judgment and remanded the matter to the Eighth Circuit for further consideration in light of the position presently asserted by the Solicitor General in his brief. Petty v. United States, 481 U.S. 1034, 1034, 107 S.Ct. 1968, 95 L.Ed.2d 810 (1987). 41 Upon remand, the Court of Appeals adopted the Solicitor General's view that the statute was in fact intended to reach multiple criminal episodes that were distinct in time rather than multiple felony convictions arising out of a single criminal episode. Petty, 828 F.2d at 3; see also United States v. Montgomery, 819 F.2d 847, 850 (8th Cir.1987) (in light of Solicitor General's Petty brief, government conceded that convictions for simultaneous robbery of two victims constitutes single conviction for purposes of Sec. 1202(a) enhancement; remanded for resentencing in light of government's changed position). Since then, the Eighth Circuit has reaffirmed this position, reiterating in a recent opinion that the criminal episodes underlying the [defendant's prior] convictions ... must be distinct to trigger the provisions of the [statute]. Rush, 840 F.2d at 581. 42 Apart from the Supreme Court's apparent acceptance of the Solicitor General's view, as we stated earlier, we are persuaded to adopt the multiple criminal episodes approach based upon the statute's legislative history. See also Brief of Solicitor General at 4-10, Petty v. United States, 481 U.S. 1034, 107 S.Ct. 1968, 95 L.Ed.2d 810 (1987) (canvassing the legislative history). 5 We believe that the Armed Career Criminal Act indeed was aimed at career criminals, rather than those who merely commit three punishable acts. Wicks, 833 F.2d at 195 (Pregerson, J., dissenting); see also Armed Career Criminal Act, Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Crime of the House Comm. on the Judiciary, 98th Cong., 2d Sess. 47-66 (1984) (testimony of Assistant Attorney General Stephen S. Trott) (Trott Testimony); Armed Career Criminal Act of 1983, Hearing Before the Senate Comm. on the Judiciary, 98th Cong., 1st Sess. 11, 15, 18-19 (1983) (testimony of Deputy Assistant Attorney General James Knapp). As Judge Pregerson noted in Wicks, the title of the Act itself indicates that it was aimed at punishing career criminals, individuals who are resistant to society's efforts at rehabilitation. Wicks, 833 F.2d at 195. This view was confirmed by Assistant Attorney General Stephen S. Trott, who stated at a 1984 Congressional hearing concerning whether to require two rather than three convictions for an Armed Career Criminal Act violation: 43 These are people who have demonstrated, by virtue of their definition, that locking them up and letting them go doesn't do any good. They go on again, you lock them up, you let them go, it doesn't do any good, they are back for a third time. At that juncture, we should say, That's it; time out; it is all over. We, as responsible people, will never give you the opportunity to do this again. 44 Trott Testimony, supra, at 64. 45 It seems quite clear that this section of the Act was intended to target recidivists, i.e., those who have engaged in violent criminal activity on at least three separate occasions, and not individuals who happen to acquire three convictions as a result of a single criminal episode (or, as here, two such criminal events). Finally, apart from the purposes of the Act, we also agree with the Solicitor General that Congress did not intend Sec. 924's enhancement provisions to be any broader than other, similar federal enhanced penalty provisions which do require courts to focus on the number of prior criminal episodes in which a defendant was involved. See, e.g., 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3575(e)(1); 21 U.S.C. Sec. 849(e)(1) (repealed 1987). Applying this interpretation of Sec. 924(e)(1), we therefore conclude that since Towne's four convictions arose out of two, not three, distinct criminal episodes, they do not trigger the enhancement provisions of Sec. 924(e)(1). 46 On appeal, the United States Attorney for the District of Vermont argues that even if we adopt the multiple episodes approach, the enhancement of Towne's sentence was proper since kidnapping and rape are felonies which do not usually arise out of the same course of continuous criminal conduct. He argues that the two felonies have very different elements, protect discrete interests, [and] do not inevitably occur together. Perhaps so, but we believe that, under the circumstances of this case, in each instance the kidnapping and rape offenses were part of a continuous course of conduct which was directed against a single victim. In 1976, and again in 1983, Towne was convicted for abducting and raping a woman who had picked him up while he was hitchhiking. Towne's method of operation was to threaten his victim with a weapon and then force her to drive to an area where he would carry out the sexual assault. Thus, unlike other cases cited by the appellee, where a convicted defendant had committed separate crimes against separate victims in separate locations, see, e.g., Wicks, 833 F.2d at 193; Greene, 810 F.2d at 1000, we consider each of these two attacks to be a single criminal episode. Therefore, we reject the government's argument that this case is distinguishable from the Petty case.