Court Opinion

ID: 9481976
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 08:37:00.05878+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:48:41.719237
License: Public Domain

A. LEON HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I join with the majority opinion and recognize that, in this case, there is no judicial option by which Tannis can obtain relief. I write separately because of an escalating concern on my part that Congress may not have fully appreciated the egregious consequences which sometimes result from the imposition of a statutory minimum sentence on a first offender who is not a major participant in a drug transaction. In cases such as this, district judges frequently complain about imposing sentences which, to them, seem unduly harsh. It is a recurring topic in informal conversations and often in explicit statements made during sentencing. However, little is accomplished if we speak only to ourselves, and the Congress and the public are deprived of learning about the unnecessary harshness that sometimes occurs.
This case presents yet another tragic example of the inflexible application of the sentencing guidelines caused by the statutory minimum imposed by Congress in 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A). The statute requires a ten-year mandatory minimum for possession of certain types and quantities of narcotics. The presentence report advises us that Kathy-Ann Tannis is twenty-one years old, first offender, and the mother of a one-year old child. As a courier, unlinked to the main drug organization, she was a relatively small link in a massive chain.
While he recognized that her actions were illegal, the trial judge thought it egregious that he was compelled under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(e) to impose a sentence that was harsher than he otherwise would have after considering all of the relevant factors in the case. When we remove all discretion from trial judges and preclude them from making individual determinations, even for first offenders, it is doubtful whether society benefits on either a long term or short term basis. The concern expressed by the thoughtful trial judge in this case is similar to comments we read frequently from oth*199er judges. His words should serve as an impetus to our legislators to re-evaluate a ten-year mandatory minimum sentence for a first offender, who does not appear to have been a major player in the drug transaction. Hopefully, our legisltaors will consider whether, in cases of this type, trial judges should have some increased flexibility in departing from a ten-year sentence. The experienced trial judge, Alfred Wolin, who sat previously as a state judge, made the following remarks:
“There’s no doubt that the sentence that the guidelines calls for is a very harsh and very extreme sentence, one that this Court, if left to its own devices, would not impose. While I think that you should go to jail, and I think that all couriers should go to jail, to take a 21 year old woman and to sentence her to a mandatory minimum of 10 years, as I must, is a very harsh and extreme sentence. When one thinks that when you emerge from an institution, you will be 31, you will have given away 10 of the productive years of your life and will be separated from you child in your child’s development years, that’s a very heavy concern for this Court. But I have no choice.” (emphasis added) App. 32a-33a.
Judges and legislators must always remember that ultimately we are not sentencing widgets or robots, but human beings. I am not suggesting that human frailties and crimes should be ignored. Nevertheless convicted defendants should be sentenced within the spectrum of what most able judges would consider fair and reasonable both for our society and for the sentenced defendant.