Court Opinion

ID: 9639347
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:13:29.225745+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:16.273398
License: Public Domain

THOMPSON, Associate Judge,
concurring.
I write separately to describe another reason that persuades me that appellant cannot satisfy the plain-error test with respect to his Second Amendment challenge to his gun-possession convictions. We have interpreted the fourth prong of that test to permit reversal of a conviction “only in exceptional circumstances where a miscarriage of justice would otherwise result.” Brawner v. United States, 745 A.2d 354, 357 (D.C.2000) (citations omitted); see also United States v. Frady, 456 U.S. 152, 163 n. 14, 102 S.Ct. 1584, 71 L.Ed.2d 816 (1982) (explaining that courts of appeals “long have recognized” that they are to use their power under the plain-error rule “sparingly, solely in those circumstances in which a miscarriage of justice would otherwise result”); United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 736, 113 S.Ct. 1770, 123 L.Ed.2d 508 (1993) (same). On the facts of this case, leaving appellant’s weapons-possession convictions undisturbed does not amount to a miscarriage of justice.
Appellant was charged with UF, UA, and CPWL, offenses that the government prosecuted under D.C.Code §§ 7-2502.01, 7-2506.01(3), and 22-4504(a) (2001). The government might instead (or in addition) have charged appellant with another possession offense, to wit, possession of a firearm during a crime of violence (“PFCV”), see D.C.Code § 22-4504(b), on *1294the basis of his having possessed a firearm while assaulting Harrison on January 26, 2004. And, the jury actually found appellant guilty of offenses that make up the elements of PFCV: commission of a “crime of violence,” which term includes ADW,1 while possessing a pistol. See D.C.Code § 22-4504(b). The PFCV statute, whose constitutionality Heller has not placed in question,2 provides for a mandatory minimum jail term of five years. See D.C.Code § 22-4504(b). By contrast, for his weapons (UF, UA, and CPWL) convictions, appellant was sentenced to total jail time of three years (and he was sentenced to serve three additional years for the ADW conviction). I can see no miscarriage of justice in allowing the weapons convictions to stand, when appellant could have received a much more severe sentence 3 on the same body of evidence, with not even an arguable infringement of Second Amendment rights.4

. See D.C.Code § 22-4501(1) (2001).

. See District of Columbia v. Heller, - U.S. -, 128 S.Ct. 2783, 171 L.Ed.2d 637 (2008). Unlike the CPWL statute (D.C.Code § 22-4504(a)), the PFCV statute, D.C.Code § 22-4504(b), was not a subject of the grant of certiorari in Heller and was not mentioned in the Supreme Court’s opinion in the case. See also District of Columbia v. Heller, - U.S. -, 128 S.Ct. 645, 169 L.Ed.2d 417 (2007) (granting certiorari limited to reviewing whether D.C.Code §§ 7-2502.02(a)(4), 22-4504(a), and 7-2507.02 violate Second Amendment rights).

. That is, appellant could have been sentenced to a minimum of five years for PFCV plus three consecutive years for ADW. The PFCV and ADW convictions would not have merged. See Freeman v. United States, 600 A.2d 1070, 1073 (D.C.1991) (concluding that PFCV and ADW convictions did not merge because "[i]n creating the offense of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, the Council focused on the concern that firearms were increasingly involved in murders and assault,” while "assault with a dangerous weapon focuses on punishing those who assault others with any kind of a dangerous weapon”).

. Cf. Woodall v. United States, 684 A.2d 1258, 1264-65 (D.C.1996) (there was no unfairness that met fourth prong of plain error test where, even though indictment charged defendant under superseded statute, the same facts that formed the basis for the indictment were presented at trial, defendant’s conduct that was proven at trial was prohibited under a statute that was in effect, and defendant therefore suffered no prejudice).