Court Opinion

ID: 9482959
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:06:23.620441+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:19.366441
License: Public Domain

HEANEY, Senior Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
In my view, Nancy Martz should have been permitted to introduce into evidence two documents which established that the government informant was lying when he testified that he had not entered into plea agreements in state courts in California and Utah. With respect to drug related offenses in those states, the exhibits were not offered to prove that Smith had prior drug convictions, but rather to attack his credibility. Smith’s credibility was crucial — his testimony was essential to Martz’s conviction. The admission of these documents could have been accomplished quickly, and it would not have given rise to a mini-trial.
Although the Carter case well supports Martz’s position, the majority distinguishes Carter on the grounds that the document in that case was admitted only after the witness admitted its authenticity. Here, however, the trial court did not ever question Smith as to the authenticity of the plea agreement. If faced with questioning about the previous plea agreements, Smith may well have backed off his previous statements, and his credibility would have been damaged.
I also believe that the majority errs in affirming the sentence. This court, over *792my dissent, recently held en banc that we must follow policy statements and commentary to bring about consistency in sentencing. United States v. Kelley, 956 F.2d 748, 756 (8th Cir.1992) (en banc). One would think that we would be bound by that decision where the policy statement or commentary requires a shorter sentence as well as where it requires a longer sentence.
But, apparently this is not to be the case even though the application note here is clear and precise: “If the number of doses ... but not the weight of the controlled substance is known, multiply the number of doses ... by the typical weight per dose in the table below to estimate the total weight of the controlled substance.” U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1 (Application Note 11). The weight of each dose was not known; thus, the table had to be used.
Unlike the majority, I do not believe extrapolation would be proper in this case. Unlike the situation in Bishop, the blotter paper here did not come from the same source at the same time. United States v. Bishop, 894 F.2d 981, 987 (8th Cir.1990). Moreover, the amount of blotter paper weighed was a small fraction (approximately five percent) of the total amount attributed to Martz. Under these circumstances, the district court did not have enough “case-specific information” from which to make a “more reliable estimate of the total weight.” U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1 (Application Note 11). Compare United States v. Shabazz, 933 F.2d 1029, 1034 (D.C.Cir.1991) (use of table in Note 11 not required where defendant conceded estimated weight of dilaudid pills was accurate, and where estimated weight was supported by data from Physicians Desk Reference, the manufacturer, and the DEA).
The majority opinion buttresses the district court’s findings by favorably comparing the district court’s calculation of the average weight per dose of the dosage unit (.0055 grams) to LSD blotter weights set forth in reported cases from other circuits. See ante at 791. Although the majority’s review is interesting, I do not see how findings of fact from other cases can constitute “case-specific” evidence to support the district court’s findings of fact in this case.
The majority also reports that a wide variance in blotter paper weights would not be possible in this case “because the known weights were clustered at .0055 to .00692.” See ante at 791. With all due respect, I think this reasoning is circular: because only three samples were taken, there is no way to know whether there was a wide variance between blotter paper weights, yet the limited sample is used as proof that there was not a wide variance in weights. Moreover, there was a wide variance between even the three samples — the heaviest sample was almost twenty-five percent heavier than the lightest sample.
While it would have taken a short time to accurately determine the weight per dose, the government did not make this effort. Thus, the court was obligated to follow the table.