Opinion ID: 2328657
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Legality of Johnson's Sentence

Text: Johnson was found guilty of carrying a pistol without a license and received a sentence of two to six years imprisonment. He alleges that the trial court imposed an excessive sentence under D.C.Code § 22-3204 (1981) because the court stated that it was sentencing him on both the underlying charge of carrying a pistol without a license to one to three years and on the repeat papers to one to three consecutive. The trial court failed to explain further why it used this formulation. In the Judgment and Commitment Order, however, the court noted that it was sentencing Johnson to two to six years imprisonment for Count D, which the indictment listed as Carrying a Pistol Without a License (Outside Home or Place of Business), in violation of 22 D.C.Code, Section 3204(a). [10] Generally, our review of sentencing is extremely limited, and a sentence which does not exceed the statutory limit must be permitted to stand. See Powers v. United States, 588 A.2d 1166, 1169 (D.C. 1991) (quoting Williams v. United States, 571 A.2d 212, 214 (D.C.1990)). In this case, although the sentence does not exceed the statutory limit if the trial court was sentencing Johnson under § 3204(a)(2), the court's articulated rationale for sentencing Johnson to a term of two to six years was that he was being sentenced to one to three years on the carrying a pistol without a license charge and one to three years on his prior convictions. Under D.C.Code § 22-3204, however, the trial court had the option of sentencing Johnson under either (a)(1) for carrying a pistol without a license outside his home or business or (a)(2) for having prior felony convictions, but not both. It appears from the court's statements that it was sentencing Johnson under both (a)(1) and (a)(2), although there is no such indication on the Judgment and Commitment Order. Thus, looking at the record as a whole, there is support for both propositions. If the court sentenced Johnson to two to six years because of Johnson's previous convictions (without regard to the fact that Johnson carried a pistol without a license outside his home or business), the sentence would be a legal one because there is no dispute that Johnson had previous felony convictions. If, however, the court misconstrued the statute and intended to sentence Johnson both for having prior convictions and for carrying a pistol without a license outside his home or business, the court erred. Because the basis for the court's sentence is unclear to us, we remand the case to the trial court for re-sentencing in a manner consistent with this opinion. [11]