Opinion ID: 707567
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: UNITED STATES v. GRANDERSON

Text: 4 Redmond argues that the sentence imposed by the district court is excessive because United States v. Granderson, --- U.S. ----, 114 S.Ct. 1259, 127 L.Ed.2d 611 (1994), prohibits the district court from sentencing him to a term of more than six months, which is the maximum prison sentence allowing probation under the sentencing guidelines. However, Granderson does not control this case for two reasons. First, Granderson construes the drug possession proviso rather than the provision under which the district court resentenced Redmond, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3565(a)(2). Second, the footnote on which Redmond relies is dictum. 5 In Granderson, the Court addressed the proper interpretation of the term original sentence in the drug possession proviso of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3565, requiring that if a person on probation possesses illegal drugs, the court must revoke the sentence of probation and sentence the defendant to not less than one-third of the original sentence. --- U.S. at ----, ----, 114 S.Ct. 1259, 1261 (1994). The government argued that original sentence referred to the term of probation originally imposed upon the defendant. Id. The defendant asserted that original sentence was the prison sentence that could have been imposed under the sentencing guidelines when the defendant was initially sentenced. Id. at ----, 114 S.Ct. at 1263-64. The Court adopted the defendant's position, reasoning that the rule of lenity should apply in construing the proviso because Congress adopted it hastily and drafted it vaguely. Id. at ----, 114 S.Ct. at 1269. 6 In a footnote, the Court noted that because the drug possession proviso was vague, the rule of lenity would also apply where the court had departed downward to impose probation. In that case, the minimum sentence imposed upon revocation of probation for drug possession would be one-third of the maximum of a guidelines range permitting a sentence of probation. Id. at ----, 114 S.Ct. at 1269 n. 15. Redmond argues that the Granderson footnote also implicitly places an upper limit on the prison sentence which may be imposed when the district court revokes probation by limiting the sentence to the maximum sentence under the guidelines allowing probation, in this case, six months. 7 Because Redmond was not sentenced under the drug possession proviso, but rather, under Sec. 3565(a)(2), his argument lacks merit. Whereas the term original sentence in the drug possession proviso is vague and therefore should be construed in accordance with the rule of lenity, Sec. 3565(a)(2) is not vague. Section 3565(a)(2) allows the court to revoke probation when a condition of probation has been violated and impose any other sentence that was available under subchapter A at the time of the initial sentencing. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3565(a)(2). We have held that this may include any sentence that was available to the district court before it decided to depart downward to grant probation. United States v. Forrester, 19 F.3d 482, 483-84 (9th Cir.1994). Thus, the district court did not err in imposing under Sec. 3565(a)(2) the thirty-three month sentence on Redmond that was available to it before it decided to depart downward. 8 Further, even if the district court is effectively revoking Redmond's probation because of drug possession, thus invoking the drug possession proviso of Sec. 3565, this court chooses not to adopt the dictum in the Granderson footnote concerning downward departure. To do so would give rise to the anomalous result that in cases involving downward departure, if the court revoked probation for violation of a condition unrelated to drug possession, it could impose a sentence available before the court decided to depart downward whereas, if the violation were drug possession, the court would be limited to the maximum sentence that would have been available after the court decided to depart downward. 9 Thus, the district court correctly concluded that Granderson does not limit the prison sentence that may be imposed on Redmond to six months. 10