Court Opinion

ID: 9483206
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:14:22.595186+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:01.469131
License: Public Domain

BOYCE F. MARTIN, Jr., Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I join in Chief Judge Merritt’s dissent, and I write further merely to express my personal views that relate to the conflict that I see in this case between the statute prohibiting the possession of a controlled substance, the enabling statute of the Sentencing Guidelines, and the sentence that can be received for possession of the controlled substance.
This case presents issues that are not necessarily restricted to the defendant, John P. Davern; to some extent the issues are societal. The facts of the case are fairly straightforward. Davern, then a 25-year-old college student who was addicted to various drugs including cocaine, believed that he could negotiate the purchase of a quantity of cocaine that he could eventually distribute in the Cleveland area. Needless to say, this country’s prohibitions against the possession and/or distribution of drugs such as cocaine are clear and without question. I will let others spend their time debating about how long Davern should be incarcerated for his crime. What I strongly object to is the conflict that develops in this case between the indictment, the constraint expressed by the trial judge, and the total elimination of the trial judge’s discretion by the majority of this court.
In a one-count indictment, a federal grand jury levied only the following charge against Davern:
On or about November 30, 1989 in the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division, JOHN P. DAVERN did knowingly, intentionally, and unlawfully possess with intent to distribute a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of cocaine, a Schedule II narcotic drug controlled substance; in violation of Title 21, Section 841(a)(1), United States Code.
Davern appeared before the district court and ultimately pled guilty to the charge. Davern possessed no prior criminal record and at the sentencing hearing a determination was made that Davern’s sentence would be dependent on the amount of cocaine that he possessed. Here, I struggle with my analysis because of what actually happened in this case rather than what could have happened. If the indictment had charged Davern with possession of the 85 grams of cocaine that were found submerged in the plaster of Paris, and Davern, in turn, was sentenced to 4.25 years in prison for the offense, then I would see little reason for an en banc decision. Also, if the indictment had charged Davern with attempting to purchase 500 grams or more of cocaine, and Davern, in turn, was sentenced to 4.25 years in prison for this offense, then once again I would find little difficulty with this case. What strikes me as fundamentally unfair in this case is that nowhere in the indictment is the amount of cocaine mentioned; the indictment merely refers to “a detectable amount of cocaine.” The most appropriate way for the grand jury to have proceeded would have been for them to charge Davern with attempting to purchase 500 grams or more of cocaine for *1514$10,500. ■ If the indictment had been structured in this manner, then Davern could have been sentenced for a crime with which he was charged. However, because the indictment was not structured in this way, the district court has sentenced Davern for a crime with which he was not charged. I just do not believe that Congress intended for a defendant to be sentenced for a crime for which he was not charged. This is why, in my opinion, the Guidelines as applied to Davern were improper, unfair, and contrary to the intent of Congress.
In determining Davern’s sentence for his crime, the determinative factor is really how one construes the relevant conduct provision. I agree with Chief Judge Merritt that both the Sentencing Commission and the majority have clearly misconstrued the instructions of Congress. As I said earlier, what troubles me is not that Da-vern was sentenced to serve 4.25 years in prison; what troubles me is the procedure employed to reach the sentence. In endorsing a broad interpretation of the relevant conduct provisions of the Sentencing Guidelines, the majority has removed the opportunity of the district judge to participate in fashioning any appropriate sentence. Moreover, this broad interpretation of the relevant conduct provision allows the provision to devour the requirement that' a defendant be proven guilty of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Under the majority’s interpretation, the prosecution can now charge a defendant with a minor drug crime, prove the defendant guilty of that minor crime beyond a reasonable doubt, and then punish the defendant for additional criminal conduct by using a back door labeled “preponderance of the evidence.” I realize that this country is in the middle of the so-called “War on Drugs,” but we do not make this country a better and safer place by ignoring the fundamental notions of fairness on which this country was founded. The majority has blindly endorsed the Sentencing Commission and totally ignored the enabling statute. Notwithstanding the decisions in Mistretta v. United States, 488 U.S. 361, 109 S.Ct. 647, 102 L.Ed.2d 714 (1989), and Burns v. United States, — U.S. -, 111 S.Ct. 2182, 115 L.Ed.2d 123 (1991), the Supreme Court has never required us to endorse a practice that is clearly not authorized by Congress.
Today's decision has tragically taken from the district judge the little opportunity that remained for him to fashion a sentence that was appropriate for the offense. In this case, we have established a bad precedent that allows a court to use the Sentencing Guidelines in a fashion that is totally inappropriate. I respectfully dissent.