Opinion ID: 168090
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Constitutional Challenges to the Statutory Punishment

Text: 34 Gurule contends that his sentence should be set aside because the mandatory life sentence violated the separation of powers doctrine, the due process clause, and the cruel and unusual punishments ban of the Constitution. Our review of constitutional challenges to a sentence is de novo. See, e.g., United States v. Jones, 213 F.3d 1253, 1261 (10th Cir.2000). We are not persuaded that any constitutional violation is shown.
35 Mr. Gurule asserts that the mandatory life sentence meted out under the Three Strikes law violates the constitutional principle of separation of powers by effectively concentrating in the executive branch, represented by the prosecutor, the power to bring charges and to determine the punishment. Although we apparently have not addressed this issue in the specific context of the Three Strikes law, we have generally recognized that mandatory sentences do not violate the separation of powers principle. Thus, in considering a challenge to the Sentencing Guidelines some years ago we recognized that because Congress has the power to completely divest the courts of their sentencing discretion and to establish exact, mandatory sentences for all offenses, Congress may circumscribe the court's sentencing discretion through the guidelines. United States v. Thomas, 884 F.2d 540, 543 (10th Cir.1989). 36 More recently, we addressed a contention that the decision to prosecute a series of robberies under federal law rather than under state law constituted a violation of separation of powers in that, allegedly, the federal prosecutor's unfettered discretion to bring the charges determine[d] with fixed consequences the term of imprisonment that would result because of the mandatory consecutive sentences involved under 18 U.S.C. § 924. In rejecting this argument, we said that it erroneously equated the filing of federal charges with the conviction of the defendant and pointed out that all three branches were involved in the ultimate disposition of the case. United States v. Curtis, 344 F.3d 1057, 1064-65 (10th Cir.2003). 37 As for the Three Strikes statute in particular, the few reported decisions of which we are aware from other circuits are unanimous in rejecting this argument. See United States v. Kaluna, 192 F.3d 1188, 1199 (9th Cir.1999) ( en banc ); United States v. Rasco, 123 F.3d 222, 226-27 (5th Cir.1997); United States v. Washington, 109 F.3d 335, 338 (7th Cir.1997). We agree with these precedents. As these cases all point out, the Supreme Court has held that Congress has the power not only to define criminal offenses but to determine punishments, and in the exercise of that power Congress may choose to give the judicial branch no sentencing discretion whatsoever. Chapman v. United States, 500 U.S. 453, 467, 111 S.Ct. 1919, 114 L.Ed.2d 524 (1991). [T]he scope of judicial discretion with respect to a sentence is subject to congressional control. Mistretta v. United States, 488 U.S. 361, 364, 109 S.Ct. 647, 102 L.Ed.2d 714 (1989). And it has been noted that at the time the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were adopted, mandatory sentences were the norm in federal cases. Washington, 109 F.3d at 338. 5 38 In the face of these precedents and their reasoning, Gurule's arguments are untenable.
39 Defendant maintains that the mandatory life sentence imposed on him violates the Eight Amendment's Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause because, he contends, it is grossly disproportionate to his offense. We cannot agree. 40 As we noted in United States v. Jones, 213 F.3d 1253, 1261-62 (10th Cir. 2000), the Supreme Court in Solem v. Helm, 463 U.S. 277, 292, 103 S.Ct. 3001, 77 L.Ed.2d 637 (1983), established a three-pronged analysis for reviewing Eighth Amendment proportionality challenges, but subsequently in Harmelin v. Michigan, 501 U.S. 957, 111 S.Ct. 2680, 115 L.Ed.2d 836 (1991), the Court substantially narrowed that approach and instructed that courts should not go beyond the first prong in most cases. Thus, we examine the sentence at issue in relation to the crime only for gross disproportionality. Hawkins v. Hargett, 200 F.3d 1279, 1282 (10th Cir.1999). This analysis takes into account the Court's statement in Solem, 463 U.S. at 284, 103 S.Ct. 3001, that the final clause [of the Eighth Amendment] prohibits not only barbaric punishments, but also sentences that are disproportionate to the crime committed. Only if we find such gross disparity will we proceed further with the analysis. Hawkins, 200 F.3d at 1282. It is only in the rare case that a threshold comparison of the crime committed and the sentence imposed leads to an inference of gross disproportionality.' Id. (quoting Harmelin, 501 U.S. at 1005, 111 S.Ct. 2680 (Kennedy, J., concurring)). 6 See also United States v. Angelos, 433 F.3d 738, 750-51 (10th Cir.2006). 41 This court does not appear to have issued an unqualified holding that mandatory life terms under the Three Strikes law do not violate this constitutional protection. But we have held that a life sentence plus a consecutive term of 45 years under this statute was not disproportionate for a defendant who had been convicted of multiple offenses involving robbery, extortion and the use of firearms and who had two previous convictions for robbery. United States v. Jones, 213 F.3d 1253, 1261-62 (10th Cir.2000). 42 We cannot conclude that this is a rare case in which the initial comparison of the offense and the sentence leads to an inference that the punishment is grossly disproportionate to the crime. In light of the holding in Harmelin that a sentence of imprisonment for life without possibility of parole is not grossly disproportionate when meted out to a first offender for possession of 650 grams of cocaine, it may be wondered if a life sentence would ever be grossly disproportionate for a serious violent felony like the one for which Mr. Gurule was convicted. We need not speculate on that, however, for we are certain that we cannot conclude that the sentence is grossly disproportionate when the defendant had twice before been convicted of a serious violent felony. Even in Solem, which as we have noted has been narrowed considerably, the Court made it clear that although the proportionality issue is to be focused on the crime for which the challenged sentence has been imposed, courts must also be mindful that legislatures may punish recidivists more severely than first-time offenders. United States v. Kaluna, 192 F.3d 1188, 1199 (9th Cir.1999) ( en banc ). 43 We must reject Mr. Gurule's Eighth Amendment argument.
44 Finally, Mr. Gurule contends that the imposition of a mandatory life sentence violated his due process rights. As presented in his opening brief, this argument adds little to the foregoing two arguments based on separation of powers and on the Eighth Amendment. In Curtis, 344 F.3d at 1064, we held that due process was not violated by the decision to prosecute a series of robberies in federal court, rather than in state court. We noted there that the decision may validly be based on whether harsher penalties are available in the chosen forum. Id. at 1064. Similarly, we find no due process violation in the prosecutor's exercise of the discretion granted by Congress to bring charges under a statute with mandatory sentencing provisions. Mr. Gurule does note additionally that a mandatory sentence largely negates the defendant's right to be present at sentencing and his right of allocution by removing any possibility that the sentence may be affected by his presence and allocution. However, we do not find that these considerations rise to the level of a violation of due process. As Justice Scalia's opinion in Harmelin noted, mandatory penalties were common at the time of the formation of the Republic and of the adoption of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and have remained so. 501 U.S. at 994-95. Because we are convinced that the Three Strikes law does not violate either the separation of powers principle or the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishments, limitations which are more specifically relevant to the statute's validity, we do not find a violation of due process. 45 Mr. Gurule expands his argument on his due process claim in his reply brief, but generally we do not consider arguments raised for the first time in reply briefs. However, in any event the arguments there presented are insufficient to show that the punishment here is unconstitutional. 46 The superficially appealing due process argument is that the Three Strikes law violates the Constitution because it shifts the burden of proof to the defendant to show, by clear and convincing evidence, that a prior strike should not be counted. This would require the defendant to show that no weapon or threat of a weapon was involved in the prior conviction and no one was injured (to paraphrase the statute liberally). The reply brief cites only one authority to support Gurule's argument, United States v. Gatewood, 184 F.3d 550, 554-55 (6th Cir.1999). However that case was overturned by an en banc opinion of the Sixth Circuit, United States v. Gatewood, 230 F.3d 186 (6th Cir.2000) (en banc). The court there observed that because Congress could have chosen not to provide any affirmative defense, it surely could not be unconstitutional for Congress to provide the defense, but put the burden to establish it on the defendant. Id. at 191. Several other courts have rejected constitutional challenges like this, and the overruled panel opinion in Gatewood apparently stands alone. 47 Significantly, our court has held that there is no due process violation in allocating the burden to the defendant in the sentencing phase. United States v. Smith, 208 F.3d 1187, 1189-90 (10th Cir.2000). It is also significant that in Smith the panel declined to rule on the related argument that the quantum of proof required of the defendant (clear and convincing evidence) violated due process, holding that on the facts before it the defendant in that case could not prevail under any standard. Here, by raising the argument only in the reply brief, defendant has precluded the government from making a similar argument on the facts of this case. The argument might have merit here as well. 7 48 Other cases upholding the Three Strikes law against a due process challenge based on the allocation and quantum of proof of the affirmative defense include United States v. Bradshaw, 281 F.3d 278, 294-97 (1st Cir.2002) (citing cases from other circuits and holding that neither allocating the burden to defendant nor employing the clear and convincing standard violate due process); and United States v, Davis, 260 F.3d 965, 969-70 (8th Cir.2001). 49 In sum, we find no merit in the due process claim. For this reason, and those expressed earlier, the conviction and sentence are 50 AFFIRMED.