Opinion ID: 788340
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Fernandez's constitutional challenges to his life sentences

Text: 210 Fernandez argues that the life sentences imposed on him because of his convictions on the RICO counts (counts one and two) violate the Eighth Amendment because they are grossly disproportionate to the sentence he might have received if convicted in another state. We review de novo whether a sentence violates the Eighth Amendment. United States v. Bland, 961 F.2d 123, 128 (9th Cir.1992). 211 Fernandez's life sentence is not so grossly disproportionate that it violates the Eighth Amendment. In Harmelin v. Michigan, the Supreme Court held that a sentence of life without parole for the crime of possessing 672 grams of cocaine did not violate the Eighth Amendment. 501 U.S. 957, 111 S.Ct. 2680, 115 L.Ed.2d 836 (1991); see id. at 1009 (Kennedy, J., concurring in part and concurring in the judgment). Fernandez's RICO convictions were predicated on the jury's finding that he had committed the crime of conspiracy to commit murder, a crime at least as grave as the drug possession at issue in Harmelin. Moreover, the defendant in Harmelin was a first-time offender, whereas Fernandez has a long history of serious criminal conduct. The Supreme Court has recently recognized that a defendant's history of felony recidivism is to be taken into account in the Eighth Amendment analysis. Ewing v. California, 538 U.S. 11, 20, 29, 123 S.Ct. 1179, 155 L.Ed.2d 108 (2003) (upholding sentence of twenty-five-years-to-life for grand theft because of defendant's long criminal history). Given the gravity of Fernandez's crimes and his criminal history, his Eighth Amendment claim is meritless. 43 212 Fernandez also argues that Congress did not intend to incorporate sentencing disparities across different states into the RICO statute, and that we should not read the RICO statute to allow such disparities. We conclude, however, that the plain structure of the relevant RICO provisions establishes that Congress did intend sentences to be based on state law. Title 18 U.S.C. § 1961(1) provides that predicate racketeering acts include offenses under state law punishable by more than a year, and § 1963(a) provides that the maximum sentence for a RICO violation is life imprisonment if the violation is based on a racketeering activity for which the maximum penalty includes life imprisonment. The RICO statute therefore contemplates that both the acts charged and the sentences imposed may vary according to the law of the state where the acts occurred. This situation is different from that presented in cases like Ye v. INS, 214 F.3d 1128, 1132 (9th Cir.2000), or Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 590, 110 S.Ct. 2143, 109 L.Ed.2d 607 (1990), the cases cited by Fernandez, where courts were interpreting a particular term in a federal statute (burglary) and rejected the contention that its meaning should be determined by state law. The RICO statute contains none of the ambiguities about whether to incorporate state law that were present in those cases, but instead clearly accepts the inevitable variation that results from incorporating state penalties into federal racketeering law. 213 Finally, Fernandez raises an equal protection challenge based on the fact that under RICO, similar criminal conduct is sentenced differently depending on the law of the state in which the acts took place. We rejected a similar challenge to the incorporation of state law into a federal statute in United States v. Sacco, and concluded that [t]he fact that [18 U.S.C. §] 1955 applies only in states where gambling is illegal does not result in a denial of equality under the law guaranteed by the due process clause of the fifth amendment. The absence of national uniformity does not render § 1955 unconstitutional. 491 F.2d 995, 1003 (9th Cir.1974) (en banc) (citation omitted). If Congress can make criminal liability dependent on state law, Fernandez offers no reason why it cannot also make sentencing dependent on state law if that is its intent. Cf. United States v. Ibarra-Galindo, 206 F.3d 1337, 1339-40 (9th Cir.2000) (holding that drug felony under state law can constitute an aggravated felony for federal sentencing guidelines purposes even if the same conduct would not constitute a felony under federal law). 44 In any event, the discrepancy here is not sufficiently egregious that we would find an equal protection violation. 214