Opinion ID: 169009
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Sentencing C hallenges

Text: -8- Before trial the government, in accordance with 21 U.S.C. § 851, filed an information notifying M r. Garner that it intended to seek a sentencing enhancement under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A). “Section 841(b)(1)(A) requires imposition of a mandatory term of life imprisonment without release if (1) a defendant is convicted of violating § 841(a), (2) that conviction involved a certain requisite amount of drugs, and (3) the crime w as committed after two or more prior convictions for a felony drug offense have become final.” United States v. Stiger, 413 F.3d 1185, 1191 (10th Cir. 2005) (internal quotation marks omitted). The jury found M r. Garner guilty of possessing with intent to distribute more than 50 grams of cocaine base within 1,000 feet of the University of Kansas. This conviction satisfied the first and second requirements of § 841(b)(1)(A); M r. Garner’s three sentencing challenges relate to the third.
M r. Garner challenges the evidence used to establish that he was the person convicted of the two prior felony offenses stated in the information. He does not argue that the evidence presented was insufficient to prove identity. Rather, he contends that the Sixth Amendment limits the government to using only the charging documents and admissions by the defendants in the prior cases. Because he raised this argument at sentencing, our review is de novo. See id., 413 F.3d at 1191. -9- M r. Garner contends that under Shepard v. United States, 544 U.S. 13 (2005), the government’s proof of the facts underlying the prior convictions is limited to the charging documents, plea colloquies, and admissions in the prior cases, and that the identity of the person convicted is a fact underlying the conviction. But Shepard, which w as decided as a matter of statutory interpretation and not on Sixth Amendment grounds, was concerned with determining what prior crime the defendant had been convicted of, not whether he is the person who had been convicted. The Supreme Court ruled that the only proper means to determine the offense of conviction would be to examine the charging documents, although admissions by the defendant at the prior proceeding (such as admissions during the plea colloquy) could also be considered. Shepard makes sense because the issue it addresses is not what the defendant did but what he w as convicted of, and this latter issue can be resolved only on the basis of what the jury had been asked to decide. Here, however, the issue is whether the defendant is the same person convicted of the prior crime. To limit evidence of identity to the documents permitted by Shepard would be to preclude proof of identity in virtually all cases. The factfinder would have to resolve identity based on only the name of the defendant in the prior case. If a judge is to determine whether the defendant is the person convicted in the prior proceedings— and Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 490 (2000), says that this is permissible— the judge must be able to -10- consider evidence beyond that allowed by Shepard. Indeed, the necessary and appropriate evidence will be fingerprints, photographs, and other evidence from law-enforcement and correctional-institution files, just what was used in this case. Accordingly, we reject M r. Garner’s contention.