Court Opinion

ID: 9474849
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:10:49.203779+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:22.622486
License: Public Domain

NORRIS, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I concur in the court’s judgment affirming Gwaltney’s conviction. I disagree, however, with the majority’s conclusion that the district judge had statutory authority to render Gwaltney ineligible for parole for a term of 30 years. I believe that 18 U.S.C. § 4205(a) reflects a clearly and firmly expressed Congressional mandate that, barring specific statutory exceptions, no federal prisoner shall remain locked up for longer than ten years without receiving a parole hearing.
A common sense reading of the statutory language and the legislative history refutes the majority’s interpretation of the statute. The language of section 4205(a) that “a prisoner shall be eligible for release on parole ... after serving ten years of a life sentence of over 30 years ...,” 1 expresses a clear Congressional intent that prisoners shall become eligible for parole after serving at most ten years. In other words, section 4205(a) provides a maximum minimum sentence of ten years. The language of section 4205(b) expresses an equally clear Congressional intent to give sentencing judges the option of setting parole eligibility dates earlier than those prescribed in section 4205(a), but not later.2 This does not mean, of course, that the prisoner has a right to be released when he becomes eligible for parole; it means only that he will be considered for release by the Parole Commission.
I recognize that any interpretation of section 4205(a) must account for the limiting phrase “except to the extent otherwise provided by law.” The majority relies heavily on this “except” clause, reading into it a Congressional intent to refer to the very next subsection of the statute, 4205(b). In other words, the majority takes the position that in subsection (a) Congress mandated a ten-year limit on parole ineligibility, then turned around in subsection (b) and authorized individual judges to circumvent that limitation anytime they imposed a maximum sentence in excess of 30 years. Surely if Congress had intended to confer upon individual sentencing judges such unbridled discretion to disregard the command of section 4205(a), it would have said so explicitly. It strikes me as highly improbable that Congress, in using the unspe*1390cific language, “except as otherwise provided by law”, intended to refer to the very next subsection of the statute. If that had been Congress’ intent, I would expect to find in subsection (b) language such as “notwithstanding section 4205(a).”
I submit that the import of the language, “except as otherwise provided by law,” is that Congress intended to refer to other statutes specifically precluding or restricting parole. For example, the exception phrase in section 4205(a) has been used to preclude parole for District of Columbia offenders when that federal jurisdiction had a specific statutory prohibition of parole eligibility for first degree murder. Bryant v. Civiletti, 663 F.2d 286, 292 (D.C.Cir.1981); Frady v. U.S. Bureau of Prisons, 570 F.2d 1027, 1029 (D.C.Cir.1978). Another example is 21 U.S.C. § 848(c), which explicitly prohibits parole for certain drug offenders. See United States v. Valenzuela, 646 F.2d 352, 254 (9th Cir.1980).
Moreover, the majority’s expansive reading of the “except” clause produces a logical anomaly. Under the majority’s interpretation, a prisoner sentenced to a term longer than 30 years for a civil rights violation may, as in Gwaltney’s case, be required to serve a minimum sentence longer than ten years before becoming eligible for parole. Yet had Gwaltney been sentenced to a life term, he would automatically become eligible for parole after ten years. Section 4205(b)(1) empowers the sentencing judge to impose “a minimum term at the expiration of which the prisoner shall become eligible for parole, which term may be less than but-shall not be more than one-third of the maximum sentence imposed by the court....” Because it is impossible to know when a prisoner will have served one-third of a life term, subsection (b) obviously cannot apply to a life term. Thus had Gwaltney been convicted under the federal murder statute and not sentenced to death, he would have received a mandatory life term (18 U.S.C. § 1111(b) (1982); United States v. Fountain, 768 F.2d 790, 799, amended, 777 F.2d 345 (7th Cir.1985)), and would have been automatically eligible for parole after ten years. Yet the majority’s quirky reading of the statute allows his conviction under the civil rights statute to result in a 30-year wait for a parole hearing. There are other bizarre ramifications to the majority’s reading of the statute. For example, while a first degree murderer who is not sentenced to death must be sentenced to a life term and become eligible for parole after ten years, a second degree murderer could be sentenced to a term greater than 30 years and be required to wait longer than ten years for a parole hearing. 18 U.S.C. § 1111(b) (1982).
The majority brushes off the legislative history of section 4205 as “inconclusive.” Supra at 1388. To the contrary, the legislative history strongly supports my reading of the statute. The parole eligibility provisions in the Parole Commission and Reorganization Act of 1976 essentially recodified the scheme set forth in the Federal Sentencing Act of 1958. See S.Rep. No. 369, 94th Cong., 1st Sess., 22, reprinted in 1976 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 335, 343: “The statutory basis for eligibility for parole for federal prisoners ... remains unchanged.” Current section 4205(a) derives from former section 4202, which provided that a prisoner would be eligible for parole “after serving one-third of such term or terms or after serving fifteen years of a life sentence or of a sentence of over forty-five years.” Act of June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 854; July 13,1951, ch. 277, 65 Stat. 150 (repealed 1976). Current section 4205(b) replicates former section 4208(a). Act of Aug. 25,1958, 72 Stat. 845 (repealed 1976). Sections 4202 and 4208(a) under the 1958 Act were combined into current section 4205 by the 1976 Act.
The legislative history of the 1958 Act shows that Congress intended to provide for flexible parole options by authorizing sentencing judges to set a parole hearing date earlier than the lesser of one-third of the term or 15 years:
This is a bill to authorize the court in sentencing a prisoner to fix an earlier date when the prisoner shall become eligible for parole or to except such prison*1391er from the statutory limitation as to eligibility for parole when in the judgment of the court it might reasonably be expected to facilitate the rehabilitation of the prisoner.
The additional flexibility in setting parole eligibility dates also received substantial support from Federal judges, according to Chairman Celler’s survey. Through it judges would be given wider discretion in the formulation of sentences and could share the responsibility for determining the date of parole eligibility. This would provide judges with a choice which has some features of an indeterminate sentence which now is not available to Federal judges, except for those offenders committed under the Youth Corrections Act.
S.Rep. No. 2013, 85th Cong., 2d Sess. 2, reprinted in 1958 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad. News 3891, 3896-97 (emphasis added).
This same language was carried into the House Conference Report on the amendments made by the Senate concerning former section 4208, the predecessor of section 4205(b):
The purpose of the principal Senate amendment (sec. 3) is to provide the court with optional procedures which will enable it to impose sentences indeterminate in nature. This will permit the court, at its discretion, to share with the executive branch responsibility for determining how long a period a prisoner should actually serve. The court will be authorized to impose a term of imprisonment either under the existing definite sentencing system [in which a prisoner would be eligible for parole only after serving one-third of his sentence], or fix the maximum term of the sentence and (1) direct that the prisoner shall be eligible for parole at any time up to one-third this maximum, as now provided by law, or (2) specify that the Board of Parole shall decide when the prisoner will be considered for parole. In other words, if the court is so disposed, it may give the Parole Board greater latitude in a particular case or, if it is not so inclined, may follow the present sentencing system.
Conference Report, Statement of the Managers on the part of the House on H.R.J. Res. 424, reprinted in 1958 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 3891, 3905 (emphasis added).3 Thus, Congress intended that a sentencing judge could increase the Parole Commission’s latitude by advancing, not postponing, the parole eligibility date. Contrary to this intent, the majority’s interpretation of the statute allows judges to reduce the Commission’s latitude by postponing the statutory eligibility date.
In enacting the 1976 Act, Congress incorporated the sentencing alternatives of the 1958 Act, merely reducing the maximum possible parole ineligibility term from 15 to ten years. The ten-year limit on parole ineligibility seems to have been a clearly understood feature of the legislation. For example, Representative Danielson, a member of the House Judiciary Committee and one of the bill’s floor managers, said:
I think one of the most important features is the section which provides that a prisoner has served a certain length of time, one-third of the sentence in the *1392usual case, ten years in the case of an exceptionally long sentence, he shall be given a parole hearing. That does not mean that he will necessarily be released.
121 Cong.Rec. 15,703 (1975). Thus, the majority’s interpretation of section 4205 not only derives no support from the legislative history, it is antithetical to Congress’ intent as expressed in that, legislative history.
Courts interpreting the parole eligibility scheme of the 1958 Act repeatedly observed that former section 4208 was intended strictly as an early parole option for sentencing judges. See United States v. Price, 474 F.2d 1223, 1228 (9th Cir.1973) (referring to former sections 4208 and 4209 as “early parole provisions”). As then Circuit Judge Blackmun stated in United States v. Jones, 419 F.2d 593, 595 (8th Cir.1969): “Section 4208(a)(1) [now 4205(b)(1)] ... authorizes the sentencing court to set an earlier time for parole eligibility than would otherwise be the case under the one-third-of-the-term measure established by section 4202 [now 4205(a)].” (Emphasis added). Moreover, in United States v. Addonizio, 442 U.S. 178, 99 S.Ct. 2235, 60 L.Ed.2d 805 (1979), the Supreme Court recognized that in both the 1976 Act and the 1958 Act, Congress allowed judges to accelerate parole eligibility, while placing the ultimate power of release with the parole authority:
The decision as to when a lawfully sentenced defendant shall actually be released has been committed by Congress, with certain limitations, to the discretion of the Parole Commission. Whether wisely or not, Congress has decided that the Commission is in the best position to determine when release is appropriate, and in doing so, to moderate the disparities in the sentencing practices of individual judges. The authority of sentencing judges to select precise release dates is, by contrast, narrowly limited: the judge may select an early parole eligibility date, but that guarantees only that the defendant will be considered at that time by the Parole Commission.
442 U.S. at 188-89 (footnotes omitted) (emphasis added).
The majority seems oblivious to the system of checks and balances that Congress built into the parole process. Though the judiciary is responsible for imposing sentences, the executive branch — through the Parole Commission — takes a second look at a prisoner and makes the “final determination of precisely how much time an offender must serve....” S.Rep. No. 369, 94th Cong., 1st Sess. 16, reprinted in 1976 U.S. Code Cong. & Ad.News 335, 337. The Parole Commission must weigh a number of complex factors in making its decision, not the least of which is “the likelihood that an offender will refrain from future acts.” Id. The Parole Commission’s exercise of hindsight is necessary because, at the time of sentencing, a judge cannot lay claim to complete prescience. Thus, “parole provides a means of releasing those inmates who are ready to be responsible citizens, and when continued incarceration, in terms of the needs of law enforcement, represents a misapplication of tax dollars.” S.Rep. No. 369, 94th Cong., 1st Sess. 16, reprinted in 1976 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad. News 335, 338. Of equal importance, the Parole Commission is engaged in “balancing differences in sentencing policies and practices between judges and courts in a system that is as wide and diverse as the Federal criminal justice system.” S.Rep. No. 369, 94th Cong., 1st Sess. 16, reprinted in 1976 U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 335, 337. Congress patently intended to reduce the wide variations in sentencing that will inevitably result from the exercise of discretion by hundreds of individualistic federal district judges.
The instant case illustrates the point. At the sentencing hearing Judge Rymer stated:
As I see it, therefore, the sentencing choice is either a life sentence under 4205(a), in which case the defendant would be eligible for parole in 10 years and the decision about how long he should serve would be vested in the Parole Commission 10 years from now, or a *1393sentence of a specified maximum and minimum term of years under 4105(b)(1), in which case it is up to me to designate at this time how long the defendant shall serve. I believe that it is incumbent upon me to make that decision in this case. Normally it is appropriate to sentence flexibly, leaving discretion to the Parole Commission, because release from prison is in part a function of how the prisoner progresses. However, in the case of Mr. Gwaltney, rehabilitation is not a factor. Moreover, there is no reason to suspect that in prison he will not behave in a proper fashion. There is thus, in my view, nothing to be anticipated over the course of the next 10 years which could inform the Parole Commission’s discretion other than what is now known to me.
Reporter’s Transcript at 4051-52. Thus Judge Rymer interpreted section 4205(b)(1) as vesting in her the authority to by-pass the ten-year limitation of section 4205(a) by imposing a maximum sentence of 90 years and requiring Gwaltney to serve a minimum term of 30 years. I do not question Judge Rymer’s considered judgment that Gwaltney is unsuitable for parole. What I do question is her interpretation of the statute. I believe that Congress intended that the Parole Commission would review Gwaltney’s suitability for parole after he serves ten years in prison. To empower sentencing judges to warehouse prisoners for 30 years or longer without possibility of parole is to empower them to render the Parole Commission impotent to play its statutory role of “balancing differences in sentencing policies and practices.” See page 1385, supra.
Instead of following Congress’ intent, the majority follows United States v. O’Driscoll, 761 F.2d 589 (10th Cir.1985), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 106 S.Ct. 1207, 89 L.Ed.2d 320 (1986). In that case, the Tenth Circuit decided that section 4205(b)(1) allows a sentencing judge to ignore section 4205(a) and “bypass the Parole Commission if the ‘ends of justice and the best interest of the public’ so require.” 761 F.2d at 596. Ironically, the piece of legislative history primarily relied upon by the Tenth Circuit is the phrase from the 1958 Senate Report concerning “the sharing of power” by the sentencing judge and the executive branch. Id. The sentence in O’Driscoll — 300 years, with parole eligibility after 99 years — is inimical to such “sharing” because it nullified the role of the Parole Commission in that case.4 In my view, the Tenth Circuit did not interpret section 4205; it amended it.
At most, section 4205 is ambiguous, which would bring into play the rule of lenity. That rule provides that courts will not resolve ambiguities in statutes in favor of increasing criminal penalties absent clear support for such an interpretation in the legislative history. Bifulco v. United States, 447 U.S. 381, 387, 100 S.Ct. 2247, 2252, 65 L.Ed.2d 205 (1980). But I do not believe that there is any need to invoke the rule of lenity in this case because the legislative history of section 4205 and its antecedents manifests a clear Congressional intent to provide sentencing judges with the option of fixing an early parole eligibility date, not to postpone that date beyond the statutory limit.
The interpretation of section 4205 espoused by the majority here, and by the Tenth Circuit in O’Driscoll, eviscerates the Congressional scheme of shared authority in making parole decisions. Apparently, the majority misperceives what is at stake in this case. Parole eligibility does not equal release, and views expressed by sentencing judges are given consideration and respect by the Parole Commission. Williams v. U.S. Parole Commission, 707 F.2d 1060, 1065 (9th Cir.1983). The judiciary should afford similar respect to the role of the *1394Parole Commission as envisioned by Congress.
I would vacate Gwaltney’s sentence and remand the case to the district court for resentencing.

. Section 4205 provides in pertinent part as follows:
(a) Whenever confined and serving a definite term or terms of more than one year, a prisoner shall be eligible for release on parole after serving one-third of such term or terms or after serving ten years of a life sentence or of a sentence of over 30 years, except to the extent otherwise provided by law.
(b) Upon entering a judgment of conviction, the court having jurisdiction to impose a sentence, when in its opinion the ends of justice and best interest of the public require that the defendant be sentenced to imprisonment for a term exceeding one year, may (1) designate in the sentence of imprisonment imposed a minimum term at the expiration of which the prisoner shall become eligible for parole, which term may be less than but shall not be more than one-third of the maximum sentence imposed by the court, or (2) the court may fix the maximum sentence of imprisonment to be served in which event the court may specify that the prisoner may be released on parole at such time as the Commission may determine.

. This interpretation of the current parole eligibility provisions is hardly novel. See Federal Judicial Center, The Sentencing Options of Federal District Judges 3 (1983):
In the case of a life sentence or a sentence of more than thirty years, the prisoner is eligible after ten years. 18 U.S.C. section 4205(a). As this provision is interpreted by the Parole Commission, consecutive sentences do not delay eligibility beyond ten years. United States Parole Commission, Procedures Manual 121 (sec. M-01(a), (c)(1)) (Jan. 1986).
In the sentence, the judge may designate an earlier parole eligibility date or specify that the prisoner is immediately eligible. 18 U.S.C. sec. 4205(b)(1), (2). (Emphasis added).

. In a letter to Senator James Eastland of the Senate Judiciary Committee on July 25, 1958, the Justice Department informed the Senator that section 4208 should be added to relieve the harshness of the parole eligibility standard in former section 4202:
The Department of Justice is of the view that the inclusion of section 4208, which was stricken from the House version, is highly desirable. The present statute, section 4202, title 18, United States Code, which provides that a prisoner is not eligible for parole consideration until he has served one-third of the sentence imposed, is purely arbitrary and does not take into consideration the response made by an individual prisoner to the rehabilitation programs carried on in our Federal institutions. Much bitterness is engendered in many prisoners who have otherwise admirably responded to rehabilitation programs by the knowledge that they must be incarcerated for a purely arbitrary period as now provided by the Parole Act. The enactment of section 4208 would have the practical effect of authorizing the imposition of indeterminate sentences by Federal courts.
1958 U.S.Code Cong, and Ad.News 3891, 3904-05.

. There is no question that the crime in O'Driscoll was particularly heinous and merited strict punishment. There is every reason to believe that, even had the Tenth Circuit correctly interpreted section 4205 to provide for parole eligibility after ten years, the defendant would not actually have been paroled until long after that point, if ever. O’Driscoll shows that sometimes easy cases make bad law.