Opinion ID: 200903
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Failure to Instruct on a Lesser Included Offense

Text: 49 The maximum sentence that may be imposed for conspiracy to manufacture and possess with intent to distribute marijuana depends upon the amount of marijuana that is attributed to the conspiracy. If a conspiracy involves at least 1,000 kilograms of marijuana or an equivalent number of marijuana plants, the maximum sentence is life. See 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A). If the conspiracy involves at least 100 but less than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana or an equivalent number of marijuana plants, the maximum sentence is 40 years. See 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(B). The maximum sentence is 20 years if the conspiracy involves at least 50 but less than 100 kilograms of marijuana or an equivalent number of marijuana plants. See 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(C)-(D). Lesser amounts are punishable by a sentence of up to five years. See 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(D). 50 The trial court treated § 841(b)(1)(B) (at least 100 but fewer than 1,000 marijuana plants) as a lesser included offense of § 841(B)(1)(A) (1,000 or more marijuana plants). 4 It thus gave the jury the option to convict the defendants of the version of the offense that carries a 40-year maximum sentence. The court, however, refused defendants' request to also instruct on § 841(b)(1)(D) (fewer than 50 marijuana plants). The matter is potentially relevant because defendants' sentences exceeded the five-year maximum that they would have been exposed to if they had been found guilty of conspiracy under § 841(b)(1)(D). 51 It is difficult to see how on the present record the jury could have found the defendants guilty of a conspiracy to manufacture fewer than 50 marijuana plants. But we need not speculate on this point because the verdicts that the jury actually returned eliminate any possibility that the failure to instruct on § 841(b)(1)(D) could have affected its thinking. 52 One of the principal reasons why a defendant is entitled to a lesser included offense instruction when the evidence supports it is that such an instruction protects a defendant from a conviction in situations where a jury, although dubious about whether the prosecution has proved an indispensable element of the crime charged in the indictment, nevertheless considers the defendant to be guilty of some crime — and is, therefore, reluctant to acquit. United States v. Flores, 968 F.2d 1366, 1369 (1st Cir.1992). A lesser included offense instruction minimizes this risk by giving jurors a third option when neither an acquittal nor a conviction on the charged offense fits the facts of the case. Schad v. Arizona, 501 U.S. 624, 646, 111 S.Ct. 2491, 115 L.Ed.2d 555 (1991). 53 We have no reason to fear in this case that the jury improperly convicted the defendants of the charged conspiracy for lack of a less serious option because the court gave the jury the chance to convict on a charge of conspiracy to manufacture fewer than 1,000 marijuana plants. If jurors had felt compelled to find the defendants guilty of something even though they had a reasonable doubt about the drug quantity charged in the indictment, they logically would have found the defendants guilty of the lesser offense. Because they instead convicted on the more serious offense, the issue is a moot point. See id. (first degree murder conviction was not called into question by court's failure to instruct on lesser included robbery charge because jury considered and rejected option to convict on second degree murder). 54