Opinion ID: 765997
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Brown's Increased Offense Level

Text: 106 In July 1996, while the investigation of the conspiracy was ongoing, an informant told the government that Brown had participated in an armed robbery during which a security guard was shot. The government searched Brown's apartment, discovered a shotgun, and prosecuted Brown under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), which criminalizes possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. The jury convicted him of this offense. At sentencing in the instant case, the government introduced as evidence the sawed-off shotgun, which was at the heart of his earlier conviction, on the ground that Brown had possessed this shotgun during the relevant time periods for which he was an enforcer for the instant conspiracy. 107 The District Court took Brown's possession of the shotgun into account in adding two points to his offense level, in accordance with U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(b)(1), which directs a district court to increase a defendant's base offense level by two points when a defendant possesses a firearm during a drug offense. Brown alleges that this two-level increase constituted double-counting and violated double jeopardy, since he had already been punished for possessing the shotgun. We review this argument, which he did not raise below, for plain error. See United States v. Coates, 178 F.3d 681, 683 (3d Cir. 1999). 108 The Supreme Court has made clear that the use of relevant conduct to increase the punishment of a charged offense does not punish the offender for that relevant conduct. See Witte v. United States, 515 U.S. 389, 395 (1995). That is, a court does not violate a defendant's protections against double jeopardy when it convicts a defendant for crime X, enhances his sentence for crime X because of conduct Y, and convicts him for conduct Y as well. In Witte, the defendant pleaded guilty to possessing marijuana with intent to distribute. In calculating Witte's offense level under the guidelines, the district court considered not only the amount of marijuana involved in the charged offense, but also an additional 1000 pounds of marijuana and 1091 kilograms of cocaine involved in uncharged criminal conduct. See id. at 393-94. Witte was later indicted for conspiring and attempting to import the 1091 kilograms of cocaine considered in the earlier sentencing. The Supreme Court rejected Witte's contention that his subsequent prosecution on the cocaine offense would subject him to double jeopardybecause the district court had considered that conduct in sentencing him on the marijuana charge. 109 The Court explained, [W]e specifically have rejected the claim that double jeopardy principles bar a later prosecution or punishment for criminal activity where that activity has been considered at sentencing for a separate crime. Id. at 398 (citing Williams v. Oklahoma, 358 U.S. 576 (1959)). 18 The Court also explained that it makes no difference in this context whether the enhancement occurred in the first or second sentencing proceeding. Id. at 399. In Brown's case, the two-point sentence enhancement occurred in the second proceeding--his conspiracy conviction--based on his possession of a firearm during a drug offense, the possession for which he earlier had been convicted. Under Supreme Court precedent, this does not create a double jeopardy problem. See also United States v. Street, 66 F.3d 969, 980 (8th Cir. 1995) (holding that use of defendant's earlier state conviction to enhance federal sentence for assaulting park rangers did not violate double jeopardy clause). Because Brown's possession of a weapon was the basis for an earlier conviction but a mandatory ground for enhancement in a separate offense with different requirements, the District Court did not violate Brown's double jeopardy rights and did not double count in reaching Brown's final offense level. We therefore will affirm Brown's sentence in its entirety.