Opinion ID: 704022
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Form of methamphetamine at sentencing

Text: 47 The drug methamphetamine exists in two isomeric forms, and the two isomers have profoundly different effects. The isomer levo-methamphetamine (L-methamphetamine) produces little or no physiological effect when ingested. United States v. Bogusz, 43 F.3d 82, 89 (3d Cir.1994), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 1812, 131 L.Ed.2d 736 (1995). Dextro-methamphetamine (D-methamphetamine), however, produces the high desired by the drug's users. Id. The Sentencing Guidelines therefore treat L-methamphetamine much less severely than D-methamphetamine. One gram of L-methamphetamine is equivalent to 40 grams of marijuana, while one gram of D-methamphetamine is equivalent to ten kilograms of marijuana. U.S.S.G. Sec. 2D1.1 at comment. n. 10. A defendant's sentence thus varies significantly depending on which variety of methamphetamine is involved. 48 In this no dope case, the two pounds of methamphetamine that Dudden was convicted of conspiring to distribute was never recovered or tested by the government. Nor did the government discover the laboratory where the drug was manufactured, or present any evidence of production method or materials. Nevertheless, the presentence report recommended that the district court calculate the two pounds of methamphetamine as D-methamphetamine rather than L-methamphetamine. Dudden objected to the classification. 49 The district judge, after hearing argument at the sentencing hearing, calculated Dudden's sentence as though the drug involved were D-methamphetamine. As a result, Dudden's base sentencing level was 26, which in Criminal History Category I called for a sentence of 63-78 months. Had the district court classified the drug as L-methamphetamine, her base sentencing level would have been 18, which calls for a range of 27-33 months. 50 Dudden challenges the district court's determination that the drug involved was the more potent D-methamphetamine. We review the district court's factual findings at sentencing for clear error. United States v. Buenrostro-Torres, 24 F.3d 1173, 1174 (9th Cir.1994). It is the government's burden to present evidence sufficient for the district court to find, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the drug involved was D-methamphetamine. See United States v. Harrison-Philpot, 978 F.2d 1520, 1522-23 (9th Cir.1992), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 113 S.Ct. 2392, 124 L.Ed.2d 294 (1993). 51 At the sentencing hearing, the only proof submitted by the government was two affidavits prepared for sentencing in a different case. The affidavit of DEA Senior Forensic Chemist Roger Ely stated that clandestine methamphetamine labs almost always manufacture D-methamphetamine or DL-methamphetamine, a mixture of D- and L-methamphetamine. He stated that he had never found pure L-methamphetamine, which has few, if any, stimulating properties. Ely also stated that a clandestine lab might manufacture L-methamphetamine by mistake. 52 The second affidavit, by DEA Senior Forensic Chemist Harry Skinner, stated that he had participated in the seizure of more than two hundred clandestine drug laboratories, and had never found any L-methamphetamine, whose manufacture, while possible, was not probable. 53 Maintaining that the government had not met its burden to show that the particular drug in this case was D-methamphetamine, Dudden's counsel pointed out that Jacobsen had testified that the methamphetamine looked [k]ind of funny, orange.... It didn't look like anything I thought it would look like. Jacobsen also testified that it was so funny-looking that it was hard to sell. Fitzhugh testified that the drug was different than any that I encountered before ... discolored ... almost a yellow-orangeish color and that his wife had used it and said it was not the best ... pretty different. Dudden's counsel suggested that this evidence was consistent with L-methamphetamine. 54 We must determine whether the district court clearly erred in concluding that the drug in this case was D-methamphetamine, based solely on expert affidavits regarding the predominance of D-methamphetamine in the drug marketplace. We agree with the Eleventh Circuit that [t]here must be proof ... to justify the added deprivation of liberty that follows the scoring of the drug as D-methamphetamine. United States v. Patrick, 983 F.2d 206, 209 (11th Cir.1993); see United States v. Ramsdale, 61 F.3d 825, 832 (11th Cir.1995) (plain error to sentence defendants for conspiracy to manufacture D-methamphetamine when no evidence introduced as to type of methamphetamine); United States v. Wessels, 12 F.3d 746, 754 (8th Cir.1993) (remanding sentence for further findings when district court took judicial notice that drug was D-methamphetamine, based on court's own experience that none of its many methamphetamine cases involved L-methamphetamine), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 105, 130 L.Ed.2d 53 (1994). When, as in this case, no direct evidence of the drug's chemical composition or the method of its manufacture is available, circumstantial evidence may be sufficient to determine which isomer is involved. See Bogusz, 43 F.3d at 91-92 & n. 17 (where no chemical analysis performed, circumstantial evidence may be sufficient for preponderance of evidence); United States v. Jennings, 12 F.3d 836, 838 (8th Cir.1994) (where eight drug samples attributed to the defendant tested for D-methamphetamine, no clear error to find all the methamphetamine was D-methamphetamine); United States v. Koonce, 884 F.2d 349, 352-53 (8th Cir.1989) (evidence supported inference that untested methamphetamine was part of earlier shipment that tested as D-methamphetamine). 55 In United States v. Lande, 40 F.3d 329, 331 (10th Cir.1994), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 1988, 131 L.Ed.2d 875 (1995), the government presented what appear to be identical affidavits from DEA Senior Forensic Chemists Ely and Skinner as evidence that the untested drug was D-methamphetamine. The government in Lande, however, also introduced a coconspirator's testimony that he had used the methamphetamine, which was of superior quality and had kept him up for two or three days at a time. Id. The Tenth Circuit held that the district court did not clearly err in finding D-methamphetamine based on the affidavits' statements that L-methamphetamine was rare and that the isomer had little stimulating effect, in combination with the testimony about the highly stimulating effect of the drug obtained from the defendant. Id. 56 In contrast, in Dudden's case the government presented no direct or circumstantial evidence beyond the affidavits to support a finding that the drug was D-methamphetamine. The defense presented the only evidence at sentencing regarding the appearance and the effect of the drugs, in the form of Fitzhugh and Jacobsen's trial testimony that the drugs were a strange color, hard to sell, and different in their effect on a user. This evidence arguably supports the conclusion that the drug was L-methamphetamine, which according to one of the government's own affidavits, can be manufactured accidentally in a clandestine laboratory. 57 Nevertheless, it was not the defense's burden to show that the drug was L-methamphetamine. It was the government's burden to produce evidence that the more potent D-methamphetamine was involved. To allow the expert affidavits submitted in this case, without more, to satisfy the government's burden to establish that the drug was D-methamphetamine, would shift to the defendant the burden of proving the kind of methamphetamine involved in any no-dope case. The government would meet its burden simply by producing similar general affidavits in each case, and the defense would then have the burden to produce evidence to refute the affidavits. See Ramsdale, 61 F.3d at 831 (government has burden of production and persuasion as to type of methamphetamine involved). 58 It was clear error to find that the drug in this case was D-methamphetamine. The two affidavits, without more, were insufficient to satisfy the government's burden to prove at sentencing what type of methamphetamine was involved. On remand, if the district court finds Dudden's immunity agreement was not breached, the court should resentence Dudden using the drug equivalency tables for L-methamphetamine.