Opinion ID: 778180
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Apprendi Challenges and the Jury Interrogatories

Text: 39 In sentencing defendants on counts one and two, the district court applied 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A)(iii), which provides, to the extent pertinent here, that a defendant convicted of distributing or possessing with intent to distribute 50 or more grams of crack cocaine shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment which may not be less than 10 years or more than life, 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A)(iii); see 21 U.S.C. § 846 (penalties for § 846 conspiracy are the same as those prescribed for the substantive offense that was the object of the conspiracy). As indicated above, Alberto was sentenced to concurrent 180-month terms; Grimes was sentenced to concurrent 420-month terms; Bruce, Carf, and Johnson were sentenced to concurrent life terms. Defendants do not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence that the quantity of crack cocaine in which they conspired to deal was at least 50 grams. (Nor could they. Hamilton testified that they distributed 9-18 ounces a week through late 1997; at the end of the conspiracy period, they were distributing 4-4½ ounces a week. Given that an ounce is the equivalent of more than 28 grams, Hamilton's testimony indicated that the coconspirators sold more than 100 grams every week, and in some weeks sold more than 500 grams.) Instead, defendants contend that these sentences violate the principle of Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. at 490, 120 S.Ct. 2348 (Other 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.), because drug quantity was not alleged in the superseding indictment or found by the jury beyond a reasonable doubt. We disagree. 40 This case was tried in the spring of 1999, more than a year before Apprendi was decided, but just weeks after the Supreme Court decided Jones v. United States, 526 U.S. 227, 119 S.Ct. 1215, 143 L.Ed.2d 311 (1999). In Jones, the Court ruled that facts that increase the maximum statutory penalty under the federal carjacking statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2119, are elements of that offense, not mere sentencing factors, and thus must be charged in the indictment, submitted to the jury, and proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Jones, 526 U.S. at 239, 252, 119 S.Ct. 1215. In light of Jones, the district court in the present case sua sponte distributed to the parties, on the day before the government rested, a proposed verdict sheet that included conspiracy-count interrogatories focusing on drug quantity. These interrogatories, for each defendant, read as follows: 41 1. Count One: Conspiracy to Distribute and to Possess with Intent to Distribute Cocaine and Marijuana 42
Guilty ______ Not guilty ______ 43 b. If you find [this defendant] guilty of the conspiracy alleged in Count One, do you find that the government has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the amount of crack cocaine [this defendant] conspired to distribute and possess with intent to distribute equaled at least fifty (50) grams? Proved ______ Not proved ______ 44 . . . . 45 2. Count Two: Conspiracy to Distribute and to Possess with Intent to Distribute Cocaine and Marijuana Within One Thousand (1000) Feet of a Public Elementary School 46 a. How do you find [this defendant]? Guilty ______ Not guilty ______ 47 b. If you find [this defendant] guilty of the conspiracy alleged in Count Two, do you find that the government has proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the amount of crack cocaine [this defendant] conspired to distribute and possess with intent to distribute within one thousand (1000) feet of a public elementary school equaled at least fifty (50) grams? Proved ______ Not proved ______ 48 The jury found each defendant guilty on both conspiracy counts. And it found that each defendant's membership in a conspiracy to deal in at least 50 grams of crack cocaine had been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. 49 Although defendants correctly point out that there was no allegation of drug quantity in the superseding indictment, they made no such objection in the district court, and their objection on appeal is thus reviewable only under the plain-error standard, see Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(b). Under that standard, a defendant must demonstrate that (1) there was error, (2) the error was plain, (3) the error prejudicially affected his substantial rights, and (4) the error seriously affect[ed] the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings. United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 732, 113 S.Ct. 1770, 123 L.Ed.2d 508 (1993). An error affects substantial rights if it is prejudicial and it affected the outcome of the district court proceedings. United States v. McLean, 287 F.3d 127, 135 (2d Cir.2002) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also United States v. Thomas, 274 F.3d 655, 666-67 (2d Cir.2001) (en banc) (applying plain-error analysis to claim of Apprendi error). 50 Defendants have not met this standard. Although the superseding indictment omitted any allegation as to drug quantity, that omission cannot have caused any defendant to believe that quantity was not a factor in the case. While defendants might not have realized at the outset that the issue of quantity would be decided by the jury, it was well established that the district court, in determining facts material to sentencing, may rely on evidence admitted at trial, see, e.g., United States v. Miller, 116 F.3d 641, 685 (2d Cir.1997), cert. denied, 524 U.S. 905, 118 S.Ct. 2063, 141 L.Ed.2d 140 (1998); United States v. Carmona, 873 F.2d 569, 574 (2d Cir.1989); and the quantity issue clearly was material to sentencing both under the statute, which prescribes minimum and maximum prison terms depending in part on quantity, see, e.g., 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A) (minimum of 10 years, maximum of life for a violation involving 50 or more grams of crack cocaine); id. § 841(b)(1)(B) (minimum of five years, maximum of 40 years for a violation involving five or more but less than 50 grams of crack cocaine); id. § 841(b)(1)(C) (maximum of 20 years for an indeterminate quantity of crack cocaine), and under the Sentencing Guidelines, see, e.g., Guidelines § 2D1.1(c) (drug table) (base offense level for a given type of narcotics determined by quantity). Thus, every defendant had an obvious incentive from the outset to challenge any quantity evidence the government presented at trial. 51 We see no error whatever in the district court's decision to submit interrogatories to the jury with respect to drug quantity. The decision to use interrogatories to determine quantity, as with their use in general, lies in the discretion of the district judge, United States v. Madkour, 930 F.2d 234, 237 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 911, 112 S.Ct. 308, 116 L.Ed.2d 251 (1991), and given the then-recent holding in Jones, it was surely prudent for the court in this case to have the jury determine drug quantity and to do so under the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt standard. 52 As the quantity issue was actually submitted to the jury and was decided beyond a reasonable doubt, we cannot conclude that the omission in the superseding indictment prejudicially affected any defendant's substantial rights or seriously affected the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of these proceedings. 53 Although defendants also now contend that there were procedural errors in the submission of the interrogatories to the jury, they made no such objections at trial. The proposed verdict sheet was given to the parties before the government rested its case. After the conclusion of all the evidence, the district court gave the defendants an opportunity to object. No defendant made any objection either to the giving of such interrogatories or to the language used. No defendant suggested that he had had an insufficient opportunity to review the verdict sheet or to contest the issue of narcotics quantity. Again applying the plain-error standard, we see no procedural error that prejudicially affected any defendant's substantial rights or that in any way adversely affected the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of the proceedings. 54 Finally, we note also that Alberto would have no possible claim under Apprendi even if the jury had not made any finding with respect to quantity, because the maximum prison term for a defendant convicted of trafficking in an indeterminate quantity of cocaine base is 20 years, or 240 months, see 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(C); see also United States v. Thomas, 274 F.3d at 660 n. 2. Alberto was sentenced to two concurrent terms of 180 months, well below that statutory maximum. 55