Opinion ID: 447910
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Defendants were improperly sentenced under a general

Text: 21 criminal statute when their conduct violated a 22 specific statute. 23 The sentencing in the present case violates the time-honored rule of statutory construction that a more specific statute will be given precedence over a more general one, regardless of their temporal sequence. Busic v. United States, 446 U.S. 398, 406 (1980). This rule has long been followed to prevent a defendant from being convicted under a general statute when a specific statute more particularly describing his criminal conduct has been enacted. Enzor v. United States, 262 F.2d 172 (5th Cir.1958) (conspiracy to sell narcotics must be punished under statute respecting conspiracy to violate narcotics laws, 26 U.S.C. Sec. 7237(b), rather than under general conspiracy statute); United States v. Bates, 429 F.2d 557 (9th Cir.1970) (conspiracy to sell narcotics must be punished under 26 U.S.C. Sec. 7237 rather than under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 371, the general conspiracy statute); Robinson v. United States, 142 F.2d 431 (8th Cir.1944) (property stolen from the post office must be punished under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 313 rather than 18 U.S.C. Sec. 99, which prohibits stealing personal property belonging to the United States). 24 The continued reliability of this doctrine of statutory construction has been called into question by a recent United States Supreme Court opinion. In United States v. Batchelder, 442 U.S. 114 (1979), the Court held that the U.S. Attorney had the discretion to choose which of two statutes prohibiting receipt of firearms by a convicted felon he would proceed under, even though the statute he proceeded under carried a longer maximum term of imprisonment for its violation. Since Batchelder some courts have held that there is no federal rule limiting the government's discretion to proceed under a general statute in opposition to the provisions of a specific statute. See United States v. Carpenter, 611 F.2d 113 (5th Cir.1980); United States v. Simon, 510 F.Supp. 232, 237 (E.D.Pa.1981). 25 I find this reliance on Batchelder improper and decline to follow the reasoning of these cases. Batchelder did not involve a general and a specific statute but dealt with two statutes which proscribed, in almost identical terms, the conduct for which the defendant was convicted. Thus the holding in Batchelder does not undermine the longstanding rule that a specific statute governs over a general statute, particularly in light of the Busic Court's subsequent reliance upon this doctrine in holding the general enhancement statute section 924(c) inapplicable in face of the specific enhancement provision found in section 111. 26 Moreover, the rule that a specific statute should govern over a general statute should not be lightly disregarded. As the Court explained in Simpson v. United States, 435 U.S. 6 (1978), the rule that a specific statute should prevail is a corollary to the rule of lenity (ambiguity concerning the ambit of criminal statutes should be resolved in favor of lenity, United States v. Bass, 404 U.S. 336, 347 (1971)), and has special cogency where a court is called upon to determine the extent of the punishment to which a criminal defendant is subject for his transgressions.... [The rule is] an outgrowth of our reluctance to increase or multiply punishments absent a clear and definite legislative directive. Simpson, 435 U.S. at 15. 27 I therefore conclude that, despite Batchelder, the rule remains that where a defendant is convicted of a specific crime for which Congress has intentionally proscribed a more lenient punishment, the prosecution and the courts are not at liberty to defy that specific congressional mandate. 28 Title 18 U.S.C. Sec. 111 is a general statute that prohibits interference with federal officers in the conduct of their duties, whereas 26 U.S.C. Sec. 7212(a) prohibits the forcible interference with the duties of IRS agents. 3 The indictment and evidence at trial proved a violation of 26 U.S.C. Sec. 7212(a). From the foregoing discussion, it is clear that the defendants were convicted under the wrong statute and were therefore improperly sentenced. 29