Opinion ID: 299553
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: application of youth corrections act

Text: 30 We turn to the possibility that appellant, though unsuited for treatment in the juvenile setting, might nevertheless have been appropriately considered for a sentence under the Youth Corrections Act, 18 U.S.C. § 5005 et seq. 31 Such a disposition lies within the range of possibilities foreshadowed by the Juvenile Court itself, which concluded that appellant could best be dealt with by a wider range of powers, longer term possibilities, and greater choice of facilities available to the District Court. In view of that statement, and the decisive part which it and similar considerations obviously played in the waiver decision, the District Court was required to give full attention to the prospects of this waived juvenile for rehabilitation under the long-range programs of the YCA. 32 The Government contends that appellant's conviction of first degree murder precludes any sentencing under the Youth Corrections Act. The Government argues that since 22 D.C.Code § 2404 provides that the penalty for first degree murder is death or life imprisonment, the sentencing judge has no discretion to impose any other sentence. We do not agree. 33 The ordinary criminal law provisions of the Code which specify the punishment for a crime are fully operative in limiting the sentence a judge may lawfully impose as to an adult offender, with detention for felonies prescribed as imprisonment in a penitentiary. However, if the defendant qualifies under the Youth Corrections Act, 18 U.S.C. § 5010, then the judge is not subject to the punishment provisions generally prescribed for the crime, unless he has made a prior determination that he will not impose sentence under the Youth Corrections Act. United States v. Waters, 141 U.S.App.D.C. 289, 437 F.2d 722 (1970). While a sentence under the Youth Corrections Act usually provides for confinement shorter than that accorded adult offenders, it may provide for confinement for a term longer than that permissible for adult offenders under the general criminal law provisions of the Code; in either event the Youth Corrections Act sentence prescribes confinement in a rehabilitative setting, with other youths, and not imprisonment in a penitentiary where the defendant would be subject to the influence of hardened adult offenders. Harvin v. United States, 144 U.S.App.D.C. 199, 445 F.2d 675 (May 7, 1971) (En banc). 34 The Youth Corrections Act is applicable to youth offenders (i. e. under 22 years of age at the time of conviction) who commit an offense punishable by imprisonment. 18 U.S.C. § 5010. This is applicable in terms where the jury by its unanimous verdict, concludes both that defendant is guilty of having committed murder in the first degree and shall be punished by life imprisonment. It is not the place of this court to carve an exception into the statute not written in its language. Our conclusion is the more clear when we see, on studying the subject, that in a closely related statute providing for liberalizing of ordinary sentencing provisions, Congress did write in an exception. We refer to 18 U.S.C. § 4209, dealing with young adult offenders (ages 22 through 25) which contains an express exception for offenses for which there is provided a mandatory penalty. That exception plainly renders Section 4209 inapplicable to young adult offenders for an offense carrying a penalty that is mandatory for adult offenders, which covers the case of a verdict finding guilt of first degree murder and providing for life imprisonment. But neither the exception set forth in Section 4209 nor any other was written into Section 5010, which applies to all youth offenders who commit a crime punishable by imprisonment. 8 35 The same considerations also dispose of the Government's contention that Youth Corrections Act disposition is negatived by the statute providing that a person sentenced for first-degree murder shall not be eligible for parole until 20 years after he begins serving his sentence. That provision in 22 D.C.Code § 2404 is only applicable to a person convicted of first degree murder upon whom a sentence of life imprisonment is imposed. 36 It is elementary that the jury verdict is not a sentence. The court's judgment sentencing a defendant under the Youth Corrections Act is not a parole from a sentence of life imprisonment. It is a sentence of confinement under special conditions. A youth offender found guilty of first degree murder has committed an offense punishable by life imprisonment, as we have noted, but when he has been sentenced under the Youth Corrections Act he is not one upon whom a sentence of life imprisonment has been imposd. 37 We are not free to disregard what the Youth Corrections Act provides in its language on the ground that it leads to absurd results. This can be dramatically illustrated by reference to the felony murder rule where first degree murder may be the result of, say, a robbery that is planned but a homicide that is happenstance. A youth who plans and succeeds in a robbery is eligible for consideration under the Youth Corrections Act. Even though the crime is serious there may be rehabilitative potential in a young man, whose turn to crime may have reflected bad companions and example in an unfair slum rather than hardened depravity. United States v. Waters, supra. If by pure accident a death occurred in the course of the robbery the result in law is to make the offender guilty of first degree felony murder, yet so far as sentencing discretion is concerned, this accident might not reduce his potential for rehabilitation, and might indeed enhance it with remorse. This is for the sentencing judge to determine. 38 The record before us does not indicate whether the District Court considered the possibility of sentencing appellant under the Youth Corrections Act, or even whether the District Judge felt free to do so. We think the course generally prescribed for sentencing judges by United States v. Waters, supra, is applicable in the present case, though sentence was imposed prior to Waters, because the court was sentencing a juvenile who had been waived by the Juvenile Court for the purpose of obtaining a judgment with the broad flexibility and long supervision span available in a sentence imposed by the District Court. We therefore remand the record with instructions to the District Court to consider the possibility of sentencing under the Youth Corrections Act in accordance with the rule of United States v. Waters. 39 So ordered.