Opinion ID: 588159
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Cases Cited by the Majority

Text: 155 The cases cited and relied upon by the majority deserve special mention. From the Fifth Circuit, the majority cites United States v. Wilson, 884 F.2d 174 (5th Cir.1989), and United States v. Munoz-Fabela, 896 F.2d 908 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 76, 112 L.Ed.2d 49 (1990). Wilson does not deal with whether § 924(c) constitutes an independent crime. Because the defendant was arrested getting into a methamphetamine filled vehicle with a weapon stuck in his belt, the jury was instructed it had to find the pistol was carried during and in relation to the predicate drug offense. Wilson, 884 F.2d at 177. In other words, the court effectively incorporated a substantive crime into the § 924(c) charge. It then required the government to prove the substantive offense was committed to sustain its burden of proof on the § 924(c) count even though the predicate offense was not charged. I believe this is a hybrid situation which begs the issue before us. Although the Fifth Circuit did have the precise question of whether § 924(c) is a distinct crime before the court in Munoz-Fabela, it refused to consider the issue because the court believed it had been decided in Wilson. Munoz-Fabela, 896 F.2d at 910. A careful reading of Wilson demonstrates that belief was misplaced. 156 From the Ninth Circuit, the majority cites United States v. Hunter, 887 F.2d 1001 (9th Cir.1989) (per curiam), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 1090, 110 S.Ct. 1159, 107 L.Ed.2d 1062 (1990); United States v. Robertson, 901 F.2d 733 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 395, 112 L.Ed.2d 405 (1990); and United States v. Wilkins, 911 F.2d 337 (9th Cir.1990). Only Hunter is on point with our case. In the other two, the reference to § 924(c) as an independent offense is dictum. Notwithstanding, the wellspring from which the Ninth Circuit cases draw that statement is United States v. Dixon, 558 F.2d 919 (9th Cir.1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1063, 98 S.Ct. 1237, 55 L.Ed.2d 764 (1978), in which the court held without analysis that § 924(c) is a separate crime. Authority for that conclusion was Sudduth and its progeny. Dixon, 558 F.2d at 921. 157 From the Eleventh Circuit, the majority cites United States v. Hamblin, 911 F.2d 551 (11th Cir.1990), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 2241, 114 L.Ed.2d 482 (1991), and United States v. Martinez, 924 F.2d 209 (11th Cir.1991). Hamblin was a case in which the defendant was convicted of bank robbery, and § 924(c) was employed as a sentence enhancement. Martinez was another enhancement case in which the court, in dictum contained in a footnote without reasoning, stated § 924(c) was a separate offense. Martinez, 924 F.2d at 211 n. 2. 80 158 These cases do not provide a sound basis for continuing the error we made in Sudduth. Moreover, a close reading of the cases demonstrates no court other than Sudduth attempted an analysis of § 924(c). This judicial history shows a shibbolethic willingness to reach a conclusion rather than a carefully reasoned development of a point of law. What has thus evolved is more judicial lore than judicial logic. That lore should not move us to perpetuating the error we ourselves have created.