Opinion ID: 202211
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Drug Quantity as an Element

Text: 33 Aitoro makes another challenge to the drug quantity finding, one of potentially greater consequence but of limited relevance to the case at hand. Drug quantity was, as we have discussed, determined by the judge at sentencing and was not proved to a jury or admitted by Aitoro. In addition to being vital to calculating a recommended sentence under the Sentencing Guidelines, drug quantity determinations can bear on a defendant's sentence under the drug-possession statute itself. See 21 U.S.C. § 841. Aitoro challenges our decision in United States v. Goodine, 326 F.3d 26 (1st Cir.2003), in which we decided that the drug quantity determinations that drive the sentencing restrictions under § 841 may be made by a judge, rather than a jury, because the various threshold drug quantities are not elements that distinguish between different offenses. Goodine's approach has been rejected elsewhere, see, e.g., United States v. Gonzalez, 420 F.3d 111 (2d Cir.2005); United States v. Velasco-Heredia, 319 F.3d 1080 (9th Cir.2003); see also United States v. Vazquez, 271 F.3d 93, 107-26 (3d Cir.2001) (en banc) (Becker, J., concurring), but it is the law of this circuit. 34 While the general rule is that we are bound by prior panel decisions directly on point, Charlesbank Equity Fund II v. Blinds To Go, Inc., 370 F.3d 151, 160 (1st Cir.2004) (citing Jusino v. Zayas, 875 F.2d 986, 993 (1st Cir.1989)), Aitoro invokes our authority to reconsider a prior panel decision in light of intervening controlling authority. See United States v. Rodriguez, 311 F.3d 435, 439 (1st Cir. 2002). Specifically, he argues that the decision in Booker undercut our earlier decision in Goodine. In an appropriate case, we could consider this argument, but Aitoro's sentence was not imposed subject to a mandatory minimum, and because the mandatory minimum that would have applied was 60 months, and Aitoro received a sentence of 100 months, the chances are slim that on remand Aitoro's sentence will turn on whether or not a § 841 minimum may be lawfully applied. For these reasons, we need not address the Goodine question here. 35 One thing that is abundantly clear, however, is the error of Aitoro's suggestion that even when not used to invoke a mandatory minimum sentence, drug quantity is an element of the offense which must be established by proof beyond a reasonable doubt before it is employed for sentencing purposes. Aitoro apparently seeks a declaration that, because drug quantity, when used to determine a defendant's sentence under the Sentencing Guidelines, can make a large difference in a defendant's sentence, it must be proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. We have recently rejected this view, see United States v. Yeje-Cabrera, 430 F.3d 1, 23 (1st Cir.2005), and Aitoro's argument as to this point is foreclosed.