Court Opinion

ID: 9474140
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:48:59.748188+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:43:55.365518
License: Public Domain

McKAY, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
On the issue of whether defendant is guilty of embezzling government funds, I concur in the majority opinion. However, for the reasons I stated in my dissent in United States v. Afflerbach, 754 F.2d 866 (10th Cir.1985), I must dissent from that part of the majority’s opinion that refuses to remand this case for resentencing under the proper statute. Defendant was tried under a general statute when a specific statute carrying a shorter maximum sentence covered the acts alleged in the indictment. In particular, defendant was charged with misapplying federal funds under 18 U.S.C. § 641. In fact, the defendant was accused of embezzling Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance funds, which is made punishable by 25 U.S.C. § 450d.
The maximum penalty under 18 U.S.C. § 641 is ten years for a felony and one year for a misdemeanor. The maximum penalty under 25 U.S.C. § 450d is two years for a felony and one year for a misdemeanor. The defendant was convicted of a felony and a misdemeanor and was sentenced to two concurrent one-year terms.
In Afflerbach I dissented from the majority’s decision, which ignored the issue raised by proceeding under a general statute when a specific statute is available. In Afflerbach the majority held that the only time proceeding under the wrong statute can possibly create a problem is if the defendant receives a greater sentence than that allowed by the statute under which he claims he should have been tried. Since the penalties imposed in Afflerbach were within the statutory maximum of either statute, the majority felt that no triable issue had been raised.
As the majority in this case points out, similar reasoning would allow us to ignore the fact that defendant Largo was sentenced under the wrong statute. While this approach may have some appeal in terms of judicial economy in particular cases, it encourages sloppiness and promotes arbitrary sentencing quite in conflict with the recently felt need to regulate judicial discretion in the sentencing decision. See Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, 18 U.S.C, § 3553 (1985). The remedy in cases such as this is to remand the case, not for new trial, but for new sentencing under the correct provision of the law. While the district court could, as a matter of law, impose the same sentence under the correct statute as he imposed under the statute under which defendants were sentenced, we do not know what effect knowledge that Congress intended the maximum for this crime to be two years instead of ten would have had on the district court’s decision. Even though, theoretically, no prejudice was suffered by the defendant, for the sake of fairness and informed judgment the case should be remanded for re-sentencing under the proper statute.
The sentencing in the present case violates the time-honored rule of statutory construction that “a more specific statute will be given precedence over a more general one, regardless of their temporal sequence.” Busic v. United States, 446 U.S. 398, 406, 100 S.Ct. 1747, 1753, 64 L.Ed.2d 381 (1980). This rule has long been followed to prevent a defendant from being convicted under a general statute when a specific statute more particularly describing his criminal conduct has been enacted. See, e.g., United States v. Bates, 429 F.2d 557 (9th Cir.), cert. denied sub. nom United States v. Green, 400 U.S. 1002, 91 S.Ct. 452, 27 L.Ed.2d 449 (1971); Enzor v. Unit*1103ed States, 262 F.2d 172 (5th Cir.1958), cert. denied, 359 U.S. 953, 79 S.Ct. 740, 3 L.Ed.2d 761 (1959); Robinson v. United States, 142 F.2d 431 (8th Cir.1944).
The continued reliability of this doctrine of statutory construction has been called into question by some federal courts that misinterpreted a recent United States Supreme Court opinion. In United States v. Batchelder, 442 U.S. 114, 99 S.Ct. 2198, 60 L.Ed.2d 755 (1979), the Court held that the U.S. Attorney had the discretion to choose which of two statutes prohibiting receipt of firearms by a convicted felon he would proceed under, even though the statute he chose carried a longer maximum term of imprisonment for its violation. More recently, in Ball v. United States, — U.S. -, 105 S.Ct. 1668, 84 L.Ed.2d 740 (1985), the Supreme Court held that a defendant could be indicted and prosecuted for unlawfully receiving a firearm and unlawfully possessing the same firearm arising out of the same incident, but that he could not suffer two convictions or sentences based on the single act. The Court ruled that if the jury returned guilty verdicts on both charges the district court was free to decide which statute the defendant would be sentenced under irrespective of the differing penalty provisions. Based on these cases, some courts have been tempted to throw out the window the federal rule limiting the government’s discretion to proceed under a general statute in opposition to the provisions of a specific statute. See United States v. Carpenter, 611 F.2d 113, 115 n. 3 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 447 U.S. 922, 100 S.Ct. 3013, 65 L.Ed.2d 1114 (1980); United States v. Simon, 510 F.Supp. 232, 237 (E.D.Pa.1981).
I find this reliance on Batchelder and Ball improper and decline to follow the reasoning of these other federal courts. Neither Batchelder nor Ball involved a general and a specific statute. Rather, in each case, the court was faced with two statutes that proscribed, in almost identical terms, the conduct for which the defendant was convicted. Thus, the holding of these cases does not undermine the long-standing rule that a specific statute governs over a general statute. Indeed, since the Court subsequently relied upon the general versus specific doctrine in holding the general enhancement statute, section 924(c), inapplicable in face of the specific enhancement provision found in section 111 in Busic, the conclusion that federal law no longer contemplates the specific versus general doctrine is clearly wrong.
The federal courts should await a more clear signal from the Supreme Court before deciding that this long-standing rule of statutory construction should be disregarded. As the Court explained in Simpson v. United States, 435 U.S. 6, 15-16, 98 S.Ct. 909, 914, 55 L.Ed.2d 70 (1978), the rule that a specific statute should prevail over a general statute “has special cogency where a court is called upon to determine the extent of the punishment to which the criminal defendant is subject for his transgressions. In this context, the principle is a corollary of the rule of lenity, an outgrowth of our reluctance to increase or multiply punishments absent a clear and definite legislative directive.” Despite Bat-chelder and Ball, the rule remains unchanged that where a defendant is convicted of a specific crime for which Congress has intentionally prescribed a more lenient punishment, neither the prosecution nor the courts are at liberty to defy that specific congressional mandate.
This rule could not be more applicable to any case than it is to the present case. Congress has enacted a specific statute prescribing a much more lenient sentence for embezzlement of the particular type of funds which the defendant embezzled. The district court should have considered this fact in making his sentencing determination and his consideration of this circumstance may well have decreased the punishment he imposed. Therefore, the only proper remedy in this case would be to remand the case to the district court for resentencing under the proper statute. See Enzor, 262 F.2d at 175. I concur in the court’s opinion as it relates to the issues on the merits in this case. I would *1104affirm the conviction but remand the case for resentencing under the proper statute.