Court Opinion

ID: 9493847
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:20:55.795928+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:03.805794
License: Public Domain

SILER, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
CONCURRENCE
I concur in the decision because, after the oral argument in this case, another panel decided United States v. Flowal, 234 F.3d 932 (6th Cir.2000). Therefore, we cannot overrule the decision of another panel. See Salmi v. Sec’y of Health and Human Serv., 774 F.2d 685, 689 (6th Cir.1985). Nevertheless, I write this concurrence to question whether Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), is as far-reaching as we determine in this case, following Flowal.
Apprendi did not concern a mandatory minimum sentence, as in the case at bar. Its holding is:
Other than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
Id. at 2362-63. See United States v. Munoz, 233 F.3d 410, 2000 WL 1738693 (6th Cir. Nov.27, 2000) (holding defendant’s sentence was not invalid under Apprendi because he received a sentence less than the maximum statutory penalty); United States v. Corrado, 227 F.3d 528, 542 (6th Cir.2000) (holding Apprendi is not triggered when defendants were sentenced within the prescribed maximum terms before factoring in any enhancing provisions).
The case that is similar to our case at bar is McMillan v. Pennsylvania, 477 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 2411, 91 L.Ed.2d 67 (1986), which involved a state sentencing practice in Pennsylvania whereby persons convicted of certain felonies would be subject to a mandatory minimum penalty of five years imprisonment if the court found, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the person visibly possessed a firearm in the course of committing one of those specified felonies. Id. at 81-82, 106 S.Ct. 2411. The Court found that such a procedure did not violate the Constitution. When the dissent in Apprendi raised the question as to whether the Apprendi decision overruled McMillan, Apprendi, 120 S.Ct. at 2385-86, the majority opinion categorically stated:
We do not overrule McMillan. We limit its holding to cases that do not involve the imposition of a sentence more severe than the statutory maximum for the offense established by the jury’s verdict-a limitation identified in the McMillan opinion itself.
Id. at 2361 n. 13.
Two other circuits have held that the Apprendi rule does not apply to the determination of quantity of drugs in order to trigger the statutory minimum sentences. See United States v. Keith, 230 F.3d 784, 787 (5th Cir.2000) (per curiam) (“we hold that a fact used in sentencing that does not increase a penalty beyond the statutory maximum need not be alleged in the indictment and proved to a jury beyond a rea*353sonable doubt”); and United States v. Aguayo-Delgado, 220 F.3d 926, 934 (8th Cir.2000) (“Those [statutory] miniraums, because they are within the statutory range authorized by § 841(b)(1)(C) without reference to drug quantity, are permissible under Apprendi and McMillan even where the drug quantity was not charged in the indictment or found by the jury....”).