Opinion ID: 694812
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Defendant Guereca

Text: 5 Guereca's counsel raises the issue of whether the district court properly aggregated the amount of drugs from all four transactions in calculating Guereca's sentence. Specifically, counsel suggests that Guereca's base offense level should have been based on less than one kilogram of heroin because Guereca did not personally deliver the second half of the one kilogram in the last transaction, and because none of the four transactions involved more than one kilogram of heroin. 1 Guereca was convicted of all four distribution counts as well as the conspiracy count. Under the sentencing guidelines, his base offense level was to be determined by the total amount of drugs involved, which was approximately 1,141 grams of heroin. See U.S.S.G. Secs. 2D1.1(a)(3), 3D1.2(d). The district court correctly found that the amount of heroin involved in Guereca's offense was more than one kilogram but less than three kilograms, see U.S.S.G. Sec. 2D1.1(c)(6), and thus, any appeal challenging this calculation would be frivolous. 6 Counsel also raises the question of whether the district court erred in refusing to allow a special interrogatory on the amount of drugs involved in Guereca's offense. Counsel correctly observes that the amount of drugs involved is not an element of the offense and that the Sixth Amendment requires that a jury determine only questions of guilt or innocence. Because punishment is the province of the court, the sentencing court, not the jury, determines the amount of drugs involved in an offense. United States v. McKenzie, 922 F.2d 1323, 1327-28 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 854 (1991); see also United States v. Trujillo, 959 F.2d 1377, 1383-84 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 113 S.Ct. 277 (1992); United States v. Savage, 891 F.2d 145 (7th Cir.1989) (trial court correctly refused defendant's request to have the scope of the conspiracy determined by jury through special interrogatories). The district court was entitled to refuse to submit special interrogatories that turn on sentencing findings to the jury. United States v. Smith, 938 F.2d 69 (7th Cir.) (per curiam), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 891 (1991). Thus, any challenge based on this ground would be frivolous. 7 Finally, counsel raises the potential issue of sentencing entrapment, 2 noting that Guereca would not have been sentenced to mandatory life imprisonment had the DEA arrested him sooner. Guereca did not raise this argument before the district court as a mitigating circumstance for a downward departure, see 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3553(b), and thus, to the extent appealable, the issue would be reviewed only for plain error. Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(b). Although some courts do not explicitly make the distinction between sentencing entrapment and sentencing manipulation, see, e.g., United States v. Rosa, 17 F.3d 1531, 1551 (2d Cir.1994), we have noted that in cases where the defendant does not claim that he lacked the predisposition to engage in the illegal transactions, a challenge to the government's conduct of manipulating the defendant's sentence by the amount of drugs involved is characterized as a sentencing manipulation claim. See United States v. Okey, No. 94-2588, slip op. at 3-4 (7th Cir. Feb. 8, 1995); United States v. Cotts, 14 F.3d 300, 306 n. 2 (7th Cir.1994). Counsel's argument, thus, is perhaps more appropriately referred to as sentence manipulation because its focus is not on whether Guereca was predisposed to commit the crime, but instead on whether the government stretched out the investigation merely to increase the sentence. 8 The circuits are split on whether to recognize sentencing entrapment/manipulation claims. While one federal circuit has expressly rejected the sentencing entrapment/manipulation defense, see United States v. Williams, 954 F.2d 668, 672-73 (11th Cir.1993), three circuits have acknowledged that the claim may be legally relied upon for a downward departure. 3 See United States v. Staufer, 38 F.3d 1103, 1108 (9th Cir.1994); United States v. Barth, 990 F.2d 442, 425 (8th Cir.1993); United States v. Connell, 960 F.2d 191, 196 (1st Cir.1992). Still three other circuits have not decided whether the doctrine is viable and have instead found that the facts presented do not support a sentencing entrapment/manipulation claim. See United States v. Raven, 39 F.3d 428, 438 (3d Cir.1994); United States v. Jones, 18 F.3d 1145, 1154-55 (4th Cir.1994); United States v. Rosa, 17 F.3d 1531, 1551 (2d Cir.1994). This circuit has questioned the validity of the defense of sentencing manipulation/entrapment, see Okey, No. 94-2588, slip op. at 3-4; United States v. Winston, 34 F.3d 574, 581 n. 4 (7th Cir.1994); United States v. Cotts, 14 F.3d 300, 306 n. 2 (7th Cir.1994)), and has noted that [o]ur inclination ... is not to subject isolated government conduct to a special brand of scrutiny when its effect is felt in sentence, as opposed to offense, determination. Cotts, 14 F.3d at 306 n. 2. Nevertheless, whether a defendant may rely on the doctrine is still an open question in this circuit. See Okey, No. 94-2588, slip op. at 5 (holding that even if sentencing manipulation claims are viable in this circuit, defendant has failed to demonstrate that the government improperly prolonged its investigation in order to increase his sentence.) We cannot say that any appeal raising the sentencing entrapment/manipulation claim would be legally frivolous. Because there is a non-frivolous issue with respect to Guereca's appeal, we deny counsel's Anders motion to withdraw and direct counsel to address the issue of sentencing entrapment/manipulation on appeal.