Opinion ID: 3050456
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Plain Statutory Language

Text: Historically, defendants convicted of serious drug crimes could only receive a sentence below the applicable statutory minimum if the government filed a motion for downward departure based on the defendant’s substantial assistance to the authorities under § 5K1.1 of the United States Sentencing Guidelines (“U.S.S.G.”). However, an inequity in the sentencing scheme began to develop as more culpable defendants were able to provide the government with new and useful information that the lower-level offenders could not. As a result, the more culpable defendants could avoid the statutory minimum penalties more easily than the lower-level offenders, who typically had less knowledge and thus had more difficulty providing sufficient assistance to the authorities to earn a § 5K1.1 motion from the government on their behalf. See United States v. Shrestha, 86 F.3d 935, 938 (9th Cir. 1996). In order to provide relief to lower-level offenders who made a good faith effort to cooperate with authorities but whose knowledge was of little use to the government, Congress passed the Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Reform Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f). The Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Reform Act, also known as the safety valve provision, provides relief from otherwise applicable statutory minimum sentences when a defendant satisfies five requirements. The safety valve provision states: (f) Limitation on applicability of statutory minimums in certain cases. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, in the case of an offense under section 401, 404, or 406 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 841, 844, 846) or section 1010 or 1013 of the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act (21 U.S.C. 960, 963), the court shall impose a sentence pursuant to guidelines promul- gated by the United States Sentencing Commission under section 994 of title 28 without regard to any statutory minimum sentence, if the court finds at UNITED STATES v. GAMBOA-CARDENAS 14685 sentencing, after the Government has been afforded the opportunity to make a recommendation, that—
1 criminal history point, as determined under the sentencing guidelines;
credible threats of violence or possess a firearm or other dangerous weapon (or induce another participant to do so) in con- nection with the offense;
serious bodily injury to any person;
leader, manager, or supervisor of others in the offense, as determined under the sen- tencing guidelines and was not engaged in a continuing criminal enterprise, as defined in section 408 of the Controlled Substances Act; and
hearing, the defendant has truthfully pro- vided to the Government all information and evidence the defendant has concerning the offense or offenses that were part of the same course of conduct or of a common scheme or plan, but the fact that the defen- dant has no relevant or useful other infor- mation to provide or that the Government is already aware of the information shall not preclude a determination by the court that the defendant has complied with this requirement. 14686 UNITED STATES v. GAMBOA-CARDENAS 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) (emphasis added).4 [1] Title 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) states that the safety valve applies to “an offense under” a limited number of statutes that are specifically listed in the text, namely: 21 U.S.C. §§ 841, 844, 846, 960 and 963. Title 21 U.S.C. § 960 does not describe an offense itself, but rather prescribes the penalty for a number of drug offenses prohibited by other statutes. Specifically, 21 U.S.C. § 960 provides the penalties for violations of 21 U.S.C. §§ 952, 953, 955, 957 and 959, all of which are listed in 21 U.S.C. § 960(a). Accordingly, 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f)’s reference to “an offense under . . . 21 U.S.C. § 960” invokes the statutes listed in 21 U.S.C. § 960(a), and thus the safety valve also applies to offenses committed in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 952, 953, 955, 957 and 959. [2] Title 46 App. U.S.C. § 1903, however, is not included in the offenses listed in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) or 21 U.S.C. § 960(a). The meaning of this exclusion must be interpreted in light of the entire statutory scheme and legislative purpose. “The doctrine of expressio unius est exclusio alterius as applied to statutory interpretation creates a presumption that when a statute designates certain persons, things, or manners of operation, all omissions should be understood as exclusions.” Silvers v. Sony Pictures Entm’t, Inc., 402 F.3d 881, 885 (9th Cir. 2005) (quotation marks omitted). The maxim “is a rule of interpretation, not a rule of law,” and “is properly applied only when it makes sense as a matter of legislative purpose.” Longview Fibre Co. v. Rasmussen, 980 F.2d 1307, 1313 (9th Cir. 1992). “[T]he expressio unius principle describes what we usually mean by a particular manner of expression, but does not prescribe how we must interpret a phrase once written.” Id. 4 The safety valve provision is also recited verbatim in U.S.S.G. § 5C1.2. UNITED STATES v. GAMBOA-CARDENAS 14687 [3] Here, the omission of 46 App. U.S.C. § 1903 from the statutes listed in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) and 21 U.S.C. § 960(a) indicates that § 1903 offenses are excluded from safety valve relief. This conclusion is buttressed by the fact that Congress codified the current form of 46 App. U.S.C. § 1903 in 1986, eight years before deciding which statutes to include on the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) list of offenses to which safety valve relief would apply. Congress could have included § 1903 as easily as it included the other statutes specifically listed in § 3553(f). The timing of Congress’s actions indicates that it consciously chose not to include § 1903 offenses on the safety valve list. In a similar context, we have previously held that the safety valve provision in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) is only applicable to the statutes specifically enumerated therein. United States v. Kakatin, 214 F.3d 1049, 1050-51 (9th Cir. 2000). The issue presented in Kakatin was whether the safety valve applied to convictions under 21 U.S.C. § 860, a statute which is not specifically listed in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f). Id. We stated: We first note, and Defendant concedes, that by its plain terms § 3553(f) does not apply to § 860 convictions. Nor does the wording of § 3553(f) support the argument that it contains anything other than an exhaustive list of the offenses to which the safety valve applies. Under the plain terms of § 3553(f), the safety valve applies only to convictions under 21 U.S.C. §§ 841, 844, 846, 960, and 963. Under the general rule of statutory construction that the inclusion of certain provisions in a statute implies the exclusion of others § 3553(f) does not apply to convictions under § 860. Kakatin, 214 F.3d at 1051 (citation omitted) (emphasis added). Other circuits have also held that the safety valve is inapplicable to offenses under 21 U.S.C. § 860 because that statute is not explicitly listed in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f). See United States v. Phillips, 382 F.3d 489, 499 (5th Cir. 2004) 14688 UNITED STATES v. GAMBOA-CARDENAS (holding that the “application of § 3553(f)’s safety valve is explicitly limited to the following offenses: 21 U.S.C. §§ 841, 844, 846, 960, and 963”); United States v. Koons, 300 F.3d 985, 993 (8th Cir. 2002) (holding that the safety valve does not apply to 21 U.S.C. § 860 because “Congress specified particular offenses for which a § 3553(f) reduction may be considered, and § 860 is not listed as one of them”); United States v. Anderson, 200 F.3d 1344, 1348 (11th Cir. 2000) (“The selection of these five statutes reflects an intent to exclude others . . . .”); United States v. McQuilkin, 78 F.3d 105, 108 (3d Cir. 1996) (“In clear and unambiguous language, therefore, 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) does not apply to convictions under 21 U.S.C. § 860 . . . .”). Like 21 U.S.C. § 860, 46 App. U.S.C. § 1903 is not specifically listed in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) and we thus hold that the plain statutory text indicates that the safety valve does not apply to violations of 46 App. U.S.C. § 1903. To support their position that the plain statutory language does not lead to this conclusion, appellees rely on the reasoning expressed in a recent district court decision, United States v. Olave-Valencia, 371 F. Supp. 2d 1224 (S.D. Cal. 2005), which held that the safety valve provision in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) does apply to convictions under 46 App. U.S.C. § 1903. Appellees note that 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) expressly states that the safety valve applies to “an offense under . . . 21 U.S.C. 960.” 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f); see Olave-Valencia, 371 F. Supp. 2d at 1229. Appellees also argue that 46 App. U.S.C. § 1903, though not specifically listed in 21 U.S.C. § 960, nevertheless constitutes “an offense under . . . 21 U.S.C. 960” for safety valve purposes because 46 App. U.S.C. § 1903 states that a defendant who violates the provisions of § 1903 “shall be punished in accordance with the penalties set forth in [21 U.S.C. § 960].” 46 App. U.S.C. § 1903 (g)(1).5 The district 5 As reenacted, the relevant statutory language now states that those convicted under the statute “shall be punished as provided in [21 U.S.C. UNITED STATES v. GAMBOA-CARDENAS 14689 court in Olave-Valencia adopted this argument and found that the text of § 1903(g)(1) indicates that sentences under § 1903, just like the punishments under the enumerated statutes in § 960, are not only subject to the applicable mandatory minimums of § 960, but are also entitled to safety valve relief through 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f)’s invocation of § 960. OlaveValencia, 371 F. Supp. 2d at 1230. [4] This is a misreading of the plain statutory language. The Olave-Valencia court read 46 App. U.S.C. § 1903(g)(1) as requiring violations of § 1903 to be treated exactly the same as violations of the statutes listed in 21 U.S.C. § 960(a). Id. We do not agree that the text of § 1903(g)(1) supports this conclusion. As noted above, 46 App. U.S.C. § 1903(g)(1) states that defendants violating § 1903 “shall be punished in accordance with the penalties set forth in [21 U.S.C. § 960]” (emphasis added). The statutory language does not indicate that violations of § 1903 shall be punished the same as violations of the statutes listed in 21 U.S.C. § 960(a). Instead, § 1903(g)(1) unambiguously invokes the penalties set forth in 21 U.S.C. § 960, not the entire text of § 960. Accordingly, the relevant inquiry is “What are the penalties set forth in 21 U.S.C. § 960?” The penalties set forth in 21 U.S.C. § 960 are found in § 960(b) and include explicit references to statutory minimum sentences. See 21 U.S.C. §§ 960(b)(1), (b)(2). There is no mention of the safety valve anywhere in § 960. Accordingly, a punishment in accordance with “the penalties set forth in [21 U.S.C. § 960]” would incorporate the statutory minimum,6 but not the safety valve of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) 960],” 46 U.S.C. § 70506 (emphasis added), rather than “in accordance with the penalties set forth in [21 U.S.C. § 960],” 46 App. U.S.C. § 1903 (g)(1). Although we examine the statutory language as originally set forth in 46 App. U.S.C. § 1903(g)(1), our analysis would be unchanged under the reenacted statute. 6 There is no dispute that without the safety valve, the applicable statutory minimum sentence for all four appellees is ten years, as the district court recognized at the sentencing hearing. See 21 U.S.C. § 960(b)(1). 14690 UNITED STATES v. GAMBOA-CARDENAS because the mandatory minimum is “set forth in [21 U.S.C. § 960]” and the safety valve is not. 46 App. U.S.C. § 1903(g)(1). We thus find that the plain statutory language indicates that 46 App. U.S.C. § 1903 is not “an offense under . . . 21 U.S.C. 960,” despite § 1903(g)(1)’s invocation of the penalties of 21 U.S.C. § 960. Accordingly, we hold that the safety valve is unavailable to § 1903 offenses.