Opinion ID: 160412
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Applicability of Apprendi

Text: 3 In Apprendi, the Supreme Court held that [o]ther than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Id. at 2362-63. As defendant correctly concedes, the Apprendi Court made it clear that its holding is subject to a narrow exception and is not applicable when the sentence-enhancing fact is a prior conviction, as in this case. The exception was carved out of the Apprendi holding to account for the Court's holding in Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224 (1998). The Apprendi Court specifically declined to revisit or overrule Almendarez-Torres. Apprendi, 120 S. Ct. at 2362 (Even though it is arguable that Almendarez-Torres was incorrectly decided, and that a logical application of our reasoning today should apply if the recidivist issue were contested, Apprendi does not contest the decision's validity and we need not revisit it for purposes of our decision today to treat the case as a narrow exception to the general rule we recalled at the outset.). This case falls squarely within the exception to the Apprendi holding and is governed by Almendarez-Torres. 4 Almendarez-Torres held that 8 U.S.C. 1326(b)(2), which mandates an increased sentence for violation of 1326(a) if the previous deportation was after commission of an aggravated felony, was not a separate element of the offense that must be proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt, but was, instead, merely a sentencing factor based on recidivism. Almendarez-Torres, 523 U.S. at 235. We are bound by that case to hold that the fact of defendant's prior felony conviction is not an element of the offense with which he was charged by indictment, but is, instead, a sentencing factor. See id. Consequently, the indictment in this case, which did not separately charge defendant with a prior aggravated felony conviction, did not violate defendant's constitutional rights. See id.