Court Opinion

ID: 7755175
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-07-30 20:26:26.789684+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:40:28.264949
License: Public Domain

I disagree with the majority's holding, because I believe that the indictment charging McSwain was improperly amended, over his objection, to charge the greater offenses of unlawful distribution within three miles of a school and unlawful distribution within three miles of a public housing project. Rule 13.5(a), Ala.R.Crim.P., precludes amendment of an indictment over a defendant's objection when the amendment charges a different offense. Judge Shaw stated in his special writing in Poolev. State, [Ms. CR-99-1200, Aug. 31, 2001] ___ So.2d ___ (Ala.Crim.App. 2001), that he interpreted the United States Supreme Court case ofApprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000), to require the enhancements in §§ 13A-12-250 and -270, Ala. Code 1975, to be alleged in the indictment and proven to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Judge Shaw stated, and I agree, that such enhancements constitute elements of a greater offense. Because the amendment to the indictment in this case charged McSwain with greater offenses — unlawful distribution within three miles of a school and unlawful distribution within three miles of a housing project — and because it subjected him to a sentence harsher than the maximum prescribed for the underlying crime, the trial court erred in allowing the amendment over McSwain's objection. In my opinion, that was a jurisdictional error that requires this Court's intervention.
Therefore, I believe that this cause should be remanded for the circuit court to set aside the conviction and sentence for the greater offenses of unlawful distribution within three miles of a school and unlawful distribution within three miles of a housing project, which were charged in the improperly amended indictment. The circuit court should enter a judgment for the properly charged and lesser included offense of unlawful distribution, and it should sentence McSwain accordingly, without consideration of the enhancements.