Court Opinion

ID: 9483205
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:14:22.590836+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:01.138910
License: Public Domain

MERRITT, Chief Judge,
dissenting.
Our court treats the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines as the equivalent of a statute instead of the questionable rules of an administrative agency which has ignored many of the provisions of its governing statute. The Court holds that the “relevant conduct” provisions of the Guidelines are absolute sentencing “imperatives” to be applied automatically without deviation and that they treat “success and failure [in criminal activity], conviction and no conviction alike.”1 Although the Sentencing Commission and its chairman consistently refer to these “relevant conduct” provisions as the “cornerstone of the federal sentencing guidelines,”2 the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, the Act which authorized the Guidelines, does not expressly mention or authorize any such provisions.3 As I shall try to make clear below, I do not believe that Congress authorized the type of “relevant conduct” provisions adopted by the Commission and sweepingly applied by our Court here; ’and I further believe that these provisions have led to a system of criminal sentencing in the federal courts that offends due process and other constitutional provisions. Our Court’s sweeping interpretation of § IB 1.34 of the Guidelines respecting the so-called “relevant conduct” enhancement-of-sentence and upward adjustments provisions violates, in my opinion, the unambiguous language of key sections of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, 28 U.S.C. § 994(d), and 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), ’and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
The willingness of the Court, as legal realists, to recognize and state truthfully what is in fact happening in the administra*1502tion of the Guidelines is commendable.5 Its unwillingness to confine the Sentencing Commission within applicable statutory and constitutional limitations is unfortunate because of the grave injustices it allows and because it severely undermines the role of the federal courts in protecting the rights of the accused.
I.
Davern was a college student addicted to drugs and alcohol. After being caught in a drug sting, he pled guilty to possession of cocaine. Because of the Guidelines, he is being treated as a major drug dealer. Instead of receiving a sentence of one year and 3 months for 85 grams of cocaine, the amount he possessed, his sentence was automatically increased to 4 years and 3 months for negotiating to purchase 500 grams, conduct for which he was not convicted. The facts surrounding his arrest and conviction illustrate with clarity the unjust and ultimately indefensible system effectuated by the application of the Sentencing Guidelines. The majority provides a cursory rendition of the facts. It is impossible, however, to assess fairly Davern’s claims without first examining what took place; what exactly Davern did wrong; and something about him as an individual. A more thorough recitation is in order.
On November 27, 1989, Davern met an undercover FBI agent in a Cleveland, Ohio, parking lot and negotiated to purchase one-half kilogram of cocaine. The record contains no evidence pertaining to the manner in which Davern and the agent got together initially. They agreed on a price of $10,500 for the cocaine and arranged to complete the transaction on November 30, 1989, at a local convenience store.
Davern met the agent as planned, gave him the cash, and received in return a package containing 985 grams of plaster of paris. Embedded inside the plaster was a separate small packet of cocaine weighing about 85 grams. Davern assumed that the package was what the agent said it to be and thus did not examine the substance to ensure that it was cocaine.6 Instead, he placed the package in his knapsack and exited the agent’s vehicle where the men had made the exchange. He was arrested immediately thereafter by special agents of the FBI.
Prior to this arrest, Davern had no record of criminal activity. He was a first offender.7 He attended Cleveland State University and in two quarters would have completed his degree in business management. He was a member of a large, close-knit family with strong ties to the community. The record contains no evidence to suggest that he had ever been involved in dealing drugs before this occasion. He did not obtain the funds used to purchase the cocaine unlawfully.
As District Court Judge Sam Bell noted when contemplating Davern’s sentence, Davern’s record prior to this anomalous occurrence was exemplary. Unfortunately, *1503however, while Davern outwardly appeared to be leading a successful and productive life, privately he was abusing drugs and alcohol. He admittedly entered into the drug transaction with the intent of using some of the cocaine himself and selling the rest to support his drug habit.
Davern had demonstrated a personal commitment to overcoming his addiction. He had enrolled in Alcoholics Anonymous only weeks before his arrest. Although he had not yet overcome his substance abuse, he importantly had admitted that he had a problem. Ironically, as noted by his sister, were it not for the long term of imprisonment, Davern’s arrest could have benefit-ted him in the long run by making him come to terms more quickly with his drug and alcohol abuse. By the time he entered a guilty plea, Davern was attending five meetings of A.A. each week and was effectively free from drugs and alcohol.
At all times between his arrest and conviction, Davern displayed remorse for his criminal conduct and an acceptance of personal responsibility. He received strong support from his family and friends for which he expressed gratitude. Both the prosecution and the Court noted that the circumstances surrounding the case were atypical.
It is apparently the view of Judge Nelson in his concurring opinion that the Sentencing Commission is correct that these personal offender characteristics should not be taken into account. This view is completely inconsistent with 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(1) that the sentencing courts “shall consider ... the history and characteristics of the defendant,” and impose a sentence “not greater than necessary”8 and 28 U.S.C. § 994(d) in which Congress enumerates a specific list of factors that the Commission should consider with respect to a defendant’s sentence. Why does Judge Nelson believe a court may not depart downward on the basis of such characteristics which the Commission concededly did not take into account and which the Sentencing Reform Act says the court “shall consider?” The Guidelines are not a statute, and they do not excuse a sentencing court from doing its duty under the statute, no matter what the Sentencing Commission says. Contrary to Judge Nelson’s belief, the fact that the Commission has abdicated its duty to consider the “purposes” of sentencing and the personal characteristics of defendants does not authorize a court to abdicate its duty to impose a sentence “not greater than necessary” under § 3553(a).
The Court abdicates its duty when, as here, it permits the Commission to pick and choose which directives it will honor and which it will disregard. By accepting wholesale the Commission’s interpretation of the enabling act, the Court allows the Commission to construe congressional directives to perpetuate its own will rather than the expressed will of Congress. The Commission has simply ignored many of the provisions of the statute that weigh in favor of leniency and has adopted rigidly severe “relevant conduct” provisions which Congress did not authorize.
It is true, as Judge Nelson points out, that Congress directed the Sentencing Commission to “assure that the [Guidelines and policy statements are entirely neutral as to the race, sex, national origin, creed and socioeconomic status of offenders.” 28 U.S.C. § 994(d). In the same section along with this general nondiscrimination provision, however, Congress explie-*1504itly instructed the Commission to consider the age, education, physical condition including drug dependence, family ties and responsibilities, and community ties of a defendant. 28 U.S.C. § 994(d)(1)-(11). These characteristics have traditionally weighed in favor of leniency in sentencing. The enabling act did nothing to change that time-honored tradition. It is these factors that I emphasize today with respect to Da-vern.
Judge Nelson dismisses any reliance on § 994(d) by pointing out that the Commission stated that it did consider the listed factors and determined that they are not ordinarily relevant. ■ The Commission singled out drug dependence in particular as never being a justification for a downward departure. The Commission’s wholesale and formulaic dismissal of the factors is unsatisfactory. If we simply accept as sufficient the Commission’s statements of compliance, we abdicate our responsibility to look at substance over form.
The language of § 994(d) indicates that Congress intended that the Commission consider the listed factors to the extent that they are relevant “with respect to a defendant." (emphasis added.) This language suggests a much more individualized consideration of the factors than offered by the Commission. The Commission has made no attempt to incorporate the factors into the Guidelines at all, much less develop a meaningful system for determining whether such considerations should warrant a lighter sentence in the case of an individual defendant. The problem of disregarding these factors is evident in cases involving reformed drug addicts, even those addicts that did not enjoy John Da-vern’s privileges. In United States v. Floyd, 738 F.Supp. 1256 (D.Minn.1990), for example, the Court departed downward from the Guidelines sentence because in the Guidelines the Commission did not adequately consider the case of an individual that successfully overcame an addiction. The defendant in that case was a crack addict and single mother of four young children. It is unlikely that Judge Nelson would characterize her as “privileged.” The Court justified its downward departure for reasons similar to those I propose here:
[Sjpecial, mitigating circumstances exist in this case. There has been substantial and demonstrable post-crime rehabilitation by the defendant. The rehabilitation is of a kind and nature which has not been adequately taken into consideration by the Sentencing Commission. As a result, the [Guidelines overstate the severity of defendant’s offense conduct.
Id. at 1259.9
It was the opinion of the prosecutor and apparently the majority of this Court as well, that the Guidelines adequately took into account all of the circumstances relevant to Davern’s crime and punishment and, by dictating a 51 month period of imprisonment, correctly reflected the will of Congress and the Sentencing Commission. Furthermore, the majority appears to believe that Davern’s punishment is not out of proportion to his crime.
In its opinion, the majority rejects Da-vern’s argument that the District Court has discretion to reduce the Guideline range if the range is disproportionate to Congress’s directive in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). That Directive, worded in mandatory language, states that a court “shall impose a sentence sufficient, but not greater than necessary to comply” with the purposes of sentencing. The majority, like the Sentencing Commission, totally disregards the “purposes” of sentencing in § 3553(a) of the enabling act.10 It holds instead that *1505the District Court has no such discretion, stating in an oxymoronic phrase, that the “relevant conduct” provisions of the “Guidelines are a sentencing imperative.” (emphasis added). It treats the Guidelines as if they were the statute itself. The majority’s interpretation regretfully has become the almost universally accepted view of the Guidelines.
Observing this trend, the New York Bar Association’s Committee on the Federal Courts and practically every other commentator 11 have urged Congress to overrule the Sentencing Commission and transform the Guidelines from compulsory prescriptions to general standards. The Committee has stated:
Broad goals of deterrence should never take precedence over doing justice to the individual in the dock; yet many judges feel they are forced to treat the defendants they are called upon to sentence in a dehumanized fashion, artificially ignoring entire chapters of their personal histories.
The Committee on Federal Courts, New York Bar Ass’n, Transforming the Sentencing “Guidelines” into (Just) Guidelines: Comments on the Federal Courts Study Committee Proposal, The Record 675 (1992).
Judge Bell, the sentencing judge in this case, was troubled by the constraint he felt under the Guidelines to disregard much of Davern’s personal history. Reflecting on his decision to adopt the recommendation of the probation officer in the presentenc-ing report, Judge Bell expressed his discomfort with the Guideline sentence. He stated:
One is tempted in a case like this in all candor to rule in another way because one is tempted to be result oriented. Courts, I think, should not rule on that basis, and this Court will not do so in this case. It’s an unusual circumstance that *1506brings a man like this defendant to this Court without a criminal history and with the support of so many of his fellow citizens and his family in this case.
Sentence Hearing, Case No. l:89CRO380, slip op. at 13 (N.D.Ohio July 11, 1990).
The problem with eliminating the attention courts have traditionally paid to personal characteristics of the defendant, and should continue to pay under § 3553(a), is one seen here and in many cases that come before this Court. In turning away from personal considerations that may or may not suggest an appropriate sentence, we turn to ostensibly objective measures to calculate a particular defendant’s culpability.12 But these measures are clearly flawed, for the government in many cases creates the objective facts.
Although Davern pled guilty only to possession of cocaine and possessed only 85 grams of cocaine, the majority today affirms the District Court’s sentence for his attempt to purchase 500 grams of cocaine. Two propositions come to mind when reviewing these facts: (1) Davern might not have pled guilty to possession had he suspected that the Court would calculate his sentence as if his attempt to possess 500 grams of cocaine had been successful; and (2) Davern might not have attempted to purchase such a large quantity of cocaine had he been dealing with a less accommodating seller. When asked why he wanted to purchase so much cocaine, Davern explained to the judge that he would not usually purchase so much, but that the price was a bargain.13 Had the agents not made the price so appealing, Davern as an addict might have bought less. The less he bought, the lower his sentence range would be under the Guidelines. This supposed objectivity cannot fairly be considered a reliable indicia of culpability.
Under the old system, most courts would have sentenced Davern as a minor offender.14 Under the Guidelines the Defendant received more than four years’ imprisonment, not because the judge thought Da-vern’s crime justified so much time in prison or because he felt that society would be safer and free of a dangerous felon. He imposed the sentence because he felt bound within the rigidity of the inaptly named “Guidelines.” I do not believe that Congress intended the Guidelines to be so rigidly construed.
II.
We have seen how our Court has chosen to treat the numerous relevant conduct upward adjustment possibilities contained throughout the Guidelines as “imperatives” or mandates for the sentencing court to apply automatically without deviation based largely on the information concerning uncharged and unconvicted conduct provided by the prosecutor. The Court’s holding is breathtaking. Following the “logic” of Judge Easterbrook’s opinion in a Seventh Circuit case, our court holds that in interpreting the relevant conduct provisions it is entirely “irrelevant” that the defendant was not convicted of attempt, conspiracy or some other offense “because the guidelines treat success and failure, conviction and no conviction alike.” No *1507distinction in sentencing may be drawn, according to the Court, between convicted conduct and unconvicted conduct and between completed crimes and unsuccessful attempts.
It is true that the Guidelines, as presently drawn by the Sentencing Commission, seem to treat “success and failure, conviction and no conviction alike,” United States v. White, 888 F.2d 490, 499 (7th Cir.1989), but this position clearly contravenes the Guidelines’ enabling legislation. In 28 U.S.C. § 994(l) (1988), Congress does provide for a system that will deal with multiple offenses: § 994(l) allows “incremental penalties” for multiple offenses, but limits such penalties to the situation in which a defendant is “convicted of multiple offenses committed in the same course of conduct.” To this extent Congress provided for a conviction offense sentencing system just as the states have created in similar situations.15 The statute does not authorize incremental penalties when a defendant is convicted only of a single offense during a time period in which he may also have committed other offenses if he is not charged and convicted for those offenses. Section 994(l) is plain and unambiguous. It authorizes the Sentencing Commission only to impose:
an incremental penalty for each offense in a case in which the defendant is convicted of—
(A) multiple offenses committed in the same course of conduct that result in the exercise of ancillary jurisdiction over one or more of the offenses; and
(B) multiple offenses committed at different times.
28 U.S.C. § 994(1) (1988) (emphasis added). No language of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 allows what the Sentencing Commission and now our Court have done: imposing incremental penalties for uncon-victed offenses either “in the same course of conduct” or “at different times.” The Act repeatedly refers to a “defendant who has been found guilty of an offense.” See, e.g., 18 U.S.C. §§ 3552(a), (b) & (c), 3552(b), 3554, 3555, 3556, 3561, 3571, 3581. It does not refer to unconvicted relevant conduct.
The Guidelines should not be read to treat “conviction and no conviction alike” because such a reading exceeds the authority granted in the enabling legislation to either the Sentencing Commission or a court. It contravenes the plain language of the enabling legislation. See United States v. James, 478 U.S. 597, 604, 106 S.Ct. 3116, 3120, 92 L.Ed.2d 483 (1986) (starting point for statutory interpretation is the language of the statute itself). See also Ardestani v. INS, — U.S. -, 112 S.Ct. 515, 520, 116 L.Ed.2d 496 (1991) (“strong presumption” exists that the plain language, using the ordinary meaning of the words, clearly expresses congressional intent). Evidently, the Sentencing Commission does not feel restrained by the express language of § 994(l). It has seized its authority to impose incremental penalties in circumstances involving multiple offenses without heeding the language restricting the imposition of such penalties to conduct related to the offense of conviction only.16
The Commission takes the superficially appealing position that it is proper to impose incremental penalties for unconvicted conduct because it claims that courts have always done so. Supporters point out that sentencing courts traditionally had unbridled discretion with respect to what information about the defendant would be considered when imposing a sentence. That reasoning is flawed, however, because it does not acknowledge the prosecutor’s stake in the outcome or the fundamental distinction between allowing an unbiased court to consider unlimited factors and compelling the court to impose a sentence that reflects information selectively disclosed by the prosecutor. Vesting control over sentencing in an unbiased, objective, *1508neutral federal judge is completely different from vesting such discretion in the prosecutor, a party to the case. The difference should be obvious, but apparently it is not obvious to the Sentencing Commission.
I can find no legislative history contrary to the language of § 994(i) and supporting the proposition that Congress intended to mandate punishment for unindicted or un-convicted offenses as well as convicted offenses. In the absence of clear evidence that Congress intended to augment the penalty a defendant receives for a charged and convicted offense by additional penalties for uncharged conduct, the venerable rule of statutory construction, expressio unius est exclusio alterius — i.e, “the expression of one [thing] is the exclusion of the other” — counsels against so broad an interpretation. See generally National Railroad Passenger Corp. v. National Assoc. of Railroad Passengers, 414 U.S. 453, 458, 94 S.Ct. 690, 693, 38 L.Ed.2d 646 (1974); Neuberger v. Commissioner, 311 U.S. 83, 88, 61 S.Ct. 97, 101, 85 L.Ed. 58 (1940); Ford v. United States, 273 U.S. 593, 611-612, 47 S.Ct. 531, 537, 71 L.Ed. 793 (1927). Congress’s limitation of the Sentencing Commission’s promulgating authority to convicted offenses is explicit. The expression of this Congressional limitation restricts “incremental” sentencing for offenses to “convicted” offenses. Cf. Norman Singer, 2A Sutherland Statutory Construction § 47.23 (5th ed. 1992). The majority’s expansion of the types of conduct permissible for Guidelines sentencing violates this “ancient maxim” of statutory construction, Passenger Corp., 414 U.S. at 458, 94 S.Ct. at 693, and neglects the plain meaning to be assigned to Congress’s words so directly expressed in § 994(i): only “convicted” multiple offenses will enter into incremental punishment deliberations.
The court’s statement in its final footnote that there is “nothing in this section [§ 994(1)] that forecloses taking relevant conduct into account” is strange indeed when the relevant conduct, as here, consists of another unconvicted crime (negotiation to purchase 500 grams). This is the same point Judge Nelson makes in his concurring opinion. Why would Congress have used the words “convicted” offenses if it intended to allow “incremental punishment” for “unconvicted” offenses? That is the question the court simply declines to try to answer. Somehow, if alleged uncharged, unconvicted activity is labeled “relevant conduct” it removes the strictures that Congress placed on “incremental punishment.” But we are not told why.
It is bad judicial form simply to refuse to follow the policy expressly stated by Congress, in favor of a contrary policy perpetuated by an administrative agency, especially when that congressional policy is designed to maintain a degree of judicial control over the sentencing process. I do not understand why my sisters and brothers, usually the voices of sweet reason and deference to the majoritarian branch of government, persist in following the Sentencing Commission and the Department of Justice in their defiance of the policy stated expressly in the statute we are interpreting. I understand as a matter of public choice theory of incentives why the Sentencing Commission and the Department of Justice might believe it is in their interest to control the sentencing process. See James M. Buchanan & Gordon Tullock, The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy (1965). It is certainly in their bureaucratic interest to do so. Congressional appropriations and governmental power depend upon it. But it is not in anyone else’s interest to adopt a policy contrary to the one expressed by Congress. It is certainly not in the interest of the judiciary as the “least dangerous branch,” and not in the interest of individuals in society who may be wrongly accused by prosecutors whose power has now been so enlarged through our default. The prosecutors now effectively control both the charging system and the sentencing system. And to an ever-increasing extent, the two are one and the same.
What treatment of the “incremental penalty” language of § 994(1) does the Sentencing Commission give in the Guidelines Commentary? It simply never mentions it anywhere, just as it ignores the “purposes *1509of sentencing” provision of § 3553(a), and the first offender provision of § 994(j), and the drug dependence provision of § 994(d). It ignores it entirely, and simply conflates “success and failure, conviction and no conviction” as though they were identical.
III.
The Court’s holding that the relevant conduct provision of the Sentencing Guidelines creates a system of sentencing “imperatives” also violates the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. This violation occurs because, at the time the plea must be entered, the defendant receives no notice of the additional crimes for which the court will enhance the defendant’s sentence. Only after the plea is already entered will a probation officer compile the convicted and unconvicted crimes for which sentence will be imposed depending on the uncharged, “relevant conduct” information that the prosecutor chooses to disclose to the court through the probation office. Such a system of sentencing places almost exclusive control over the sentence in the prosecutor because the judge now is compelled to base the sentence on uncharged conduct largely provided by the prosecutor. This system effectively removes the judge from any meaningful role in the sentencing process and substitutes the prosecutor for the judge. Such a system — which substitutes the prosecutor for the judge after a plea of guilty is entered and that gives no explicit notice of the crimes for which the defendant will be sentenced before the plea — violates due process. See United States v. Kikumura, 918 F.2d 1084, 1119 (3rd Cir.1990) (Rosenn, J., concurring) (reasoning that a defendant’s due process rights may be violated by sentencing system that “replaced judicial discretion over sentencing with prosecutorial discretion”); United States v. Gutierrez, 908 F.2d 349, 354-55 (8th Cir.1990) (Heaney, J., dissenting) (reasoning that the Guidelines’ limitations on a court’s traditional sentencing authority “are fundamentally unfair and a violation of due process”). See also United States v. Roberts, 726 F.Supp. 1359, 1365-68 (D.D.C.1989), rev’d sub nom. United States v. Doe, 934 F.2d 353 (D.C.Cir.1991) (holding that the Guidelines “effect substantial violations of due process” on defendants and are thus unconstitutional due to exercise of “key sentencing responsibility ... not by a judge but by the prosecuting attorney”), and United States v. Brittman, 687 F.Supp. 1329, 1355 (E.D.Ark.1988), aff'd in part, 872 F.2d 827 (8th Cir.1989) (holding that the sphere of sentencing discretion is “properly judicial in nature” in order to comport with due process requirements).
Notice to the defendant and imposition of sentence by an unbiased judge rather than control by a party litigant are crucial procedural elements of due process. These indispensable elements are now absent from the sentencing system under the Court’s holding that the relevant conduct provisions of the Guidelines should be interpreted as treating convicted and uneonvicted conduct the same.
A. Control of Sentence by Prosecutor
The Supreme Court held in Tumey v. Ohio, 273 U.S. 510, 47 S.Ct. 437, 71 L.Ed. 749 (1927), that the sentencing process may not be placed under the control of a party in interest to the litigation. In Tumey Ohio law placed town mayors in control of criminal prosecution for possession of liquor in violation of prohibition laws. Mayors and their cities were given a personal financial stake in the outcome of these particular cases. The Court held that due process forbids a party in interest from being substituted for the judge in imposing fines and sentences. The Court relied on Dr. Bonham’s Case, 8 Co.Rep. 114a, 2 Brownl. 255, 77 Eng.Rep. 647 (C.P. 1610), in holding that it “deprives a defendant in a criminal case of due process of law, to subject his liberty or property to the judgment of a court the judge of which has a direct, personal, substantial, pecuniary interest in reaching a conclusion against him in his case.” Tumey, 273 U.S. at 523, 47 S.Ct. at 441.
Dr. Bonham’s Case is the fountainhead of the doctrine of judicial review. In that case the defendant was sentenced by the *1510censors of the Royal College of Physicians, pursuant to a statute, for practicing medicine without a proper license. The statute gave a portion of the fine to the College. Lord Coke as Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas of England asserted the right of judicial review of legislative acts and held the law to be invalid.
Likewise, in Tumey the Supreme Court held that it violates fundamental principles to allow a party in interest to control the sentencing process. 273 U.S. at 531, 47 S.Ct. at 444. See also Connally v. Georgia, 429 U.S. 245, 97 S.Ct. 546, 50 L.Ed.2d 444 (1977) (holding defendants’ due process rights to have been violated by a statutory scheme that paid justices of the peace for each search warrant issued); In re Murchison, 349 U.S. 133, 139, 75 S.Ct. 623, 629, 99 L.Ed. 942 (1955) (holding due process violated by allowing judge, who had acted as one-person grand jury, to pass sentence on charges stemming from the initial grand jury hearing); and Note, Procedural Due Process at Judicial Sentencing for Felony, 81 Harv.L.Rev. 821, 837 (1968). Impartial justice requires no less than visible control of the sentencing process by an impartial participant — heretofore considered to be the role of the judiciary — to comport with traditional notions of due process. The relevant conduct provisions are a disaster for Guidelines that purport to reduce disparity because these provisions impose a disparate sentencing system based on prosecutorial discretion but conceal the prosecutor’s role from the public.
B. Notice
Although some effort was made at the arraignment in the instant case to inform the defendant that he might face as much as 51 to 63 months, a sentencing system that institutes punishment for uncharged, unconvicted crimes also violates the notice principle of due process. The prosecutor makes up the crimes for which a sentence will be imposed after the defendant has been required to plead guilty or not guilty, and that was the case here. It is impossible for the deféndant to receive notice at the critical stage of the proceeding of the crimes for which he may be sentenced. The Criminal Rules Committee of the Judicial Conference, in drafting its 1989 amendment to Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, recognized the problem that the Guidelines created in this respect. The Committee noted that under the Guideline system, “[t]he advice that the court is required to give cannot, guarantee that a defendant who pleads guilty will not later claim a lack of understanding as to the importance of guidelines at the time of the plea. No advice is likely to serve as a complete protection against post-plea claims of ignorance or confusion.” Fed.R.Crim.P. 11 advisory committee’s note (1989 amendment). The Committee made this statement because it is impossible for the court to give the defendant notice of the crimes for which he will be sentenced under the guideline system conceived by the Sentencing Commission and approved by our court. According to the procedure now used, a defendant will not be accurately informed of the specific crimes charged against him until after the probation officer’s presentence report issues. The indictment and the arraignment merely open the game of defining the crime. See, e.g., United States v. Harrington, 947 F.2d 956, 964 (D.C.Cir.1991) (Edwards J., concurring) (“Assistant U.S. Attorneys ... have been heard to say, with open candor, that there are many ‘games to be played’,” in indicting defendants and in plea bargaining). The game will later be played out when the prosecution turns over to the probation officer its handpicked list of the uncharged crimes for which it wants the defendant to be sentenced. The prosecutor’s office will draw up the charges for which the defendant will actually be sentenced after indictment, plea, and conviction, and then turn this list over to the court through the probation office. See generally Report of the Federal Courts Study Committee at 138 (Apr. 2, 1990) (commenting that this system distorts the role of probation officers and recommending greater examination of the effects of Guidelines sentencing upon the probation system); Note, Steve Y. Koh, Reestablishing the Federal Judge’s Role in Sentencing, 101 Yale L.J. 1109, 1120-21 *1511(1992) (addressing probation officer’s inability to curb prosecutorial gamesmanship in preparing presentencing reports); Hea-ney, Guidelines Sentencing, at 172-75 (noting that “the most striking features of the process are the probation officer’s reliance on the government’s files for his findings of fact, and, in turn, the court’s reliance on the [presentence report’s] conclusions and guidelines recommendation,” despite the probation officer’s inability to attend the trial or to have access to the trial transcript); and Note, 81 Harv.L.Rev. at 837 (recognizing that sentencing information needed by probation officers is frequently under control of prosecutors, “who cannot be expected to be disinterested”).
Allowing a defendant to be sentenced in this way for convicted and unconvicted crimes violates the Sixth Amendment provision requiring that the accused be “informed of the nature and cause of the accusation” at the critical stages of the case. Sentencing is just such a critical stage. Mempa v. Rhay, 389 U.S. 128, 88 S.Ct. 254, 19 L.Ed.2d 336 (1967). The requirement that defendants receive fair notice as a matter of due process under the Fifth Amendment and this comparable provision of the Sixth Amendment is fundamental. In Cole v. Arkansas, 333 U.S. 196, 201, 68 S.Ct. 514, 517, 92 L.Ed. 644 (1948), Justice Black wrote for a unanimous Court:
No principle of due process is more clearly established than that notice of the specific charge, and a chance to be heard in a trial of the issues raised by that charge, if desired, are among the constitutional rights of every accused in a criminal proceeding, in all courts, state or federal.
The Supreme Court in Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 92 S.Ct. 2593, 33 L.Ed.2d 484 (1972), applied these same principles to a state sentencing system. It held the Iowa system of parole revocation invalid under the Due Process Clause. In Mor-rissey the accused was reincarcerated by the state parole board for violating conditions of parole. The parole officer controlled this outcome because the process deferred in large measure to his recommendation and allegations of misconduct. The accused was not given notice of the allegations and evidence against him at the critical stage of the proceeding that led to his reincarceration. In reviewing fairness of such sentencing systems under the Due Process Clause, the Supreme Court in Mor-rissey applied a flexible standard:
It has been said so often by this Court and others as to not require citation of authority that due process is flexible and calls for such procedural protections as the particular situation demands. “[Consideration of what procedures due process may require under any given set of circumstances must begin with a determination of the precise nature of the government function involved as well as the private interest that has been affected by government action.”
408 U.S. at 481, 92 S.Ct. at 2600 (citations omitted). Applying this standard, the Court held that the parole revocation system in question violated due process by allowing the parole officer to control the process, although the official action was taken in the name of the state parole board, and by failing to give adequate notice of the nature of the risks to the accused.
In the history of criminal procedure in the United States, I can find no instance heretofore in which a statute, a court, or an administrative agency has stated that a sentencing court may treat “conviction and no conviction alike.” This refusal to treat conviction and no conviction alike is firmly rooted not merely in tradition but in the Constitution. When the Constitution refers to sentencing or sanctions for crimes, it refers to “convicted” crimes. We need only look to the language of the Thirteenth Amendment. Amendment XIII, § 1 states that there shall be no “involuntary servitude except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” Involuntary servitude for un-convicted crimes may not “exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction” according to the language of the Thirteenth Amendment. See also Article I, § 3[6] (impeachments), Article II, § 4 (impeachments), and Article III, § 3 (trea*1512son). To hold that the Sentencing Commission may or has validly established a sentencing system for relevant conduct which treats as “irrelevant” the difference between conviction and nonconviction flies in the face of the Constitution.
IV.
There are obvious and strong reasons for the congressional policy of § 994(1) restricting additional incremental punishment for other crimes to “relevant conduct” for which the defendant has been charged and convicted rather than a policy opening it to unconvicted crimes not charged in the indictment. A contrary policy provides a large incentive and is an open invitation for the prosecutor to manipulate the sentencing process for his own ends after the defendant has pled guilty or is otherwise convicted of a lesser crime. See Report of the Federal Courts Study Committee at 138.
Davern is a case in point. Under the Guidelines, the sentence for Davern’s offense of conviction ranged from 15-21 months. Davern, however, was sentenced to 51 months — more than three times the minimum for his offense of conviction. Da-vern received this sentence because the presentence report calculated his offense level to include unconvicted conduct. The defendant in United States v. White, 888 F.2d 490, 494, 500 (7th Cir.1990)—the case followed by our Court — fared even worse in this sentencing game. Uncharged, un-convicted conduct increased his sentencing range fivefold — from 27-33 months to 151— 188 months.
Allowing the punishment to be exponentially increased over the base offense level for the convicted crime encourages the prosecutor to do what happened here and is happening on a daily basis in the many other relevant conduct cases across the country. The defendant is indicted for a relatively small felony, which the prosecutor then expands greatly by making up a much more detailed and extensive list of criminal charges and forwarding these to the court through the probation office. The prosecutor need not disclose his hand in the beginning by giving Sixth Amendment notice of the “nature and cause of the accusation” and does not have to “confront [the accused] with the witnesses against him.” Nor need the prosecutor observe the constitutional requirement of proving the case by reliable evidence beyond a reasonable doubt or the constitutional prohibition against compulsory self-incrimination.
By dismissing as irrelevant any distinction between “success and failure, conviction and no conviction” under the formulation of the relevant conduct “imperatives,” this Court, the Department of Justice, and the Sentencing Commission have eliminated the norrnal constitutional protections afforded an accused. The separation-of-powers principle that an Article III court should control the criminal sentencing proceeding as a constitutional “case or controversy” is avoided because the court is bound to sentence the defendant on the basis of the information on the crimes forwarded by the prosecutor after the plea or verdict. The sentencing grid takes over and mechanically controls the court’s decision. The judge is only the nominal sen-tencer. Control of the sentence is thereby vested in the person who produces the new crimes information to be plugged into the grid, namely, the prosecutor. The court may'not alter the sentence based on pleas of the defendant or even pleas of the victim concerning the need for deterrence and retribution and the probability of rehabilitation. As formulated, the relevant conduct system does not allow the trial judge to consider the first principle of sentencing that Congress established in § 3553(a), that the judge may not impose on the defendant a sentence “greater than necessary” to deter or rehabilitate. Such considerations are eliminated by the sentencing grid. The Fifth Amendment constitutional requirement to give notice to the accused of the crimes charged by “presentment or indictment” is eliminated, as is the Sixth Amendment requirement that the accused be “informed of the nature and cause of the accusation.” The prosecutor submits the new crimes information in hearsay form after the plea or verdict. The constitutional and statutory rules requiring reliable *1513evidence are eliminated, and hearsay three and four levels deep is routinely used as evidence of the new crimes. See Heaney, Guidelines Sentencing, at 210 & 223-24. The court routinely instructs accused persons to appear before the probation officer, sometimes with the prosecutor or his delegate present, for the purpose of incriminating themselves on the new charges. Thus, the system of relevant conduct as formulated tends to take over the entire sentencing process, displacing the original base offense level for the crime charged and convicted and replacing it with much greater offense levels for the new crimes. This usually has the effect of increasing the sentencing severalfold by placing the system under the control of the prosecutor, by eliminating the judgment of the trial judge, and by eliminating the need for the prosecutor to observe the numerous constitutional safeguards which otherwise attach to the criminal process. The result is a constitutionally infirm procedure that is effectively shielded from judicial review. See Harrington, 947 F.2d at 966-67; Kikumura, 918 F.2d at 1119; Gutierrez, 908 F.2d at 354; see also Heaney, Guidelines Sentencing, at 190-200.

. The precise language of the Court’s holding is found in the next to .last paragraph of its opinion:
The court [in United States v. White, 888 F.2d 490 (7th Cir.1989)] further noted that although the defendant did not succeed in possessing 302 grams, that amount must be included because section 2D1.4(a) requires that the offense level for an attempt-to-commit a drug offense is the same as if the object of the attempt had been completed. The court noted that it is irrelevant that defendant was not convicted of attempt because “[t]he Guidelines treat success and failure, conviction and no conviction, alike in drug cases, so long as the amounts are ascertainable." Id. at 499. We' agree with the logic of the Seventh Circuit.

. William W. Wilkins, Jr. and John R. Steer, Relevant Conduct: The Cornerstone of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, 41 S.C.L.Rev. 495 (1990).

. Every state sentencing commission in the United States, contrary to the federal commission, has adopted conviction offense sentencing instead of so-called “real offense sentencing" or sentencing on the basis of “relevant conduct.” They did so because they believed that such a “relevant conduct" system not based on convicted conduct would violate due process and other constitutional provisions. Dale G. Parent, Structuring Criminal Sentences: The Evolution of Minnesota’s Sentencing Guidelines 62-63, 159-61 (1988).

. Section IB 1.3 defines "relevant conduct" as follows:
§ 1B1.3. Relevant Conduct (Factors that Determine the Guideline Range)
(a) Chapters Two (Offense Conduct) and Three (Adjustments). Unless otherwise specified, (i) the base offense level where the guideline specifies more than one base offense level, (ii) specific offense characteristics and (iii) cross references,in Chapter Two, and (iv) adjustments in Chapter Three, shall be determined on the basis of the following:
(1) all acts and omissions committed or aided and abetted by the defendant, or for which the defendant would be otherwise accountable, that occurred during the commission of the offense of conviction, in preparation for that offense, or in the course of attempting to avoid detection or responsibility for that offense, or that otherwise were in furtherance of that offense:
(2) solely with respect to offenses of a character for which § 3D 1.2(d) would require grouping of multiple counts, all such acts and omissions that were part of the same course of conduct or common scheme or plan as the offense of conviction;
(3) all harm that resulted from the acts or omissions specified in subsections (a)(1) and
(a)(2) above, and all harm that was the object of such acts or omissions; and
(4) any other information specified in the applicable guideline.
(b) Chapters Four (Criminal History and Criminal Livelihood) and Five (Determining the Sentence). Factors in Chapters Four and Five that establish the guideline range shall be determined on the basis of the conduct and information specified in the respective guidelines.

.In its final footnote drafted in response to this opinion, the court actually retreats from its previous frank acknowledgment that the defendant is being sentenced for unconvicted conduct. (It says the "defendant's offense include[s] the fact that the defendant negotiated to purchase 500 grams of cocaine.”) Judge Nelson tries to establish the same point in his concurring opinion. But plainly the defendant did not possess what he never got, and to sentence him automatically for possessing 500 grams, as though he were convicted of it, is a pure legal fiction. The court was correct in the main body of its opinion as circulated prior to its footnote. As we will discuss further below, the court is automatically applying a "relevant conduct” sentencing rule, increasing threefold the defendant's sentence for the unconvicted issue of negotiating to purchase 500 grams. Although the court has a tendency to shilly-shally on this point, it does not deny that we have accurately characterized its holding which is that under the rules of relevant conduct as adopted by the Sentencing Commission a defendant must suffer incremental punishment for other unconvicted crimes.

. There is no evidence to support the prosecution's characterization of Davern as an experienced drug dealer. I find it improbable that a person experienced in underworld dealings would so naively place his trust and more than $10,000 with a person with whom he had no previous dealings.

. The Sentencing Commission does not mention but rather has chosen to simply ignore the language of 28 U.S.C. § 994(j) which explicitly recognizes the general inappropriateness of prison sentences for first time offenders.

. Sections 3553(a)(1) and (2) provide:
(a) Factors to be considered in imposing a sentence. — The court shall impose a sentence sufficient, but not greater than necessary, to comply with the purposes set forth in paragraph (2) of the subsection. The court, in determining the particular sentence to be imposed, shall consider—
(1) the nature and circumstances of the offense and the history and characteristics of the defendant;
(2) the need for the sentence imposed—
(A) to reflect the seriousness of the offense, to promote respect for the law, and to provide just punishment for the offense.
(B) to afford adequate deterrence to criminal conduct;
(C) to protect the public from further crimes of the defendant; and
(D) to provide the defendant with needed educational or vocational training, medical care, or other correctional treatment in the most effective manner.

. See also Note, Sentencing the Reformed Addict: Departure Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and the Problem of Drug Rehabilitation, 91 Col.Law Rev. 2051. The author argues that the Commission too quickly rejected the importance of certain offender characteristics that many judges find relevant to sentencing including efforts to overcome drug dependency. He concludes that departure is justified when the Commission did not adequately consider offender characteristics that a court believes to be relevant to the sentence of a particular defendant.

. See our panel decision for a more comprehensive treatment of our view that the Guidelines should not be so construed under the enabling statute. United States v. Davern, 937 F.2d 1041 (6th Cir.1991) vacated.

. See, e.g., Report of the Federal Courts Study Committee 133-43 (Apr. 2, 1990) (recommending a host of reforms in the Guidelines including congressional repeal of mandatory minimum sentence provisions and amendments to the enabling act to identify Guidelines as "general standards" to be presumptively followed, as opposed to compulsory rules); Albert W. Al-schuler, The Failure of Sentencing Guidelines: A Plea for Less Aggregation, 58 U.Chi.L.Rev. 901, 917 & 939-41 (1991) (calling for revision of Guidelines to enable them to be used as "benchmarks” for sentencing in paradigmatic cases, to be used by judges like legal precedent); Kenneth R. Feinberg, The Federal Guidelines and the Underlying Purposes of Sentencing, 3 Fed. Sentencing Rep. 326, 327 (1991) (calling for revision of Guidelines to better meet legislative intent, as expressed in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a); Daniel J. Freed, Federal Sentencing in the Wake of Guidelines: Unacceptable Limits on the Discretion of Sentences, 101 Yale L.J. 1681 (1992) (the most comprehensive law review treatment of the defects in the Guidelines by one of the country’s leading scholars in the field of criminal sentencing); Bill Barratt & Frank S. Gilbert, et al., Probation Officers and the Guidelines 4 Fed.Sentencing Rep. 106, 106-07 & 109-111 (1991) (probation officers advocating various revisions to "let the Guidelines be Guidelines”); Gerald W. Heaney, The Reality of Guidelines Sentencing: No End to Disparity, 28 Am.Crim. L.Rev. 161, 225-32 (1991) (issuing various suggestions to Congress and the Commission to modify Guidelines and to repeal mandatory minimum sentencing); Theresa W. Karle & Thomas Sager, Are the Federal Sentencing Guidelines Meeting Congressional Goals?, 40 Emory LJ. 393, 444 (1991) (calling for Congress or the Commission to provide clearer guidance on "consideration of offender characteristics in sentencing and regarding proportionality” between sentences); Note, Steve Y. Koh, Reestablishing the Federal Judge’s Role in Sentencing, 101 Yale L.J. 1109, 1127 (1992) (recommending complete scrapping of existing Guidelines and revision of framework along lines advocated by Professor Alschuler); Marc Miller & Daniel J. Freed, Editors' Observations: Honoring Judicial Discretion Under the Sentencing Reform Act, 3 Fed.Sentencing Rep. 235, 235-38 (1991) (challenging Commission's promulgation of Guidelines that ignored congressional intent); Charles J. Ogletree, Jr., The Death of Discretion? Reflections on the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, 101 Harv.L.Rev. 1938, 1957-58 (1988) (disputing Commission’s adoption of Guidelines that radically curtailed judicial discretion, failed to address the purposes of sentencing listed in 18 U.S.C. § 3553, and inadequately considered individual offenders' characteristics); Comment, Jonathan E. Scharff, Federal Sentencing Guidelines: Due Process Denied, 33 St. Louis U.L.J. 1049, 1072-74 (1989) (advocating congressional amendment of Sentencing Reform Act to require evidentiary hearings and modification of Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure to provide better notice to defendants); and Jack B. Wein-stein, A Trial Judge's First Impression of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, 52 Alb.L.Rev. 1, 29-31 (1987) (recommending controlled judicial discretion in construing Guidelines to avoid pitfalls of applying "purely mathematical formulas").

. See United States v. Marshall, 908 F.2d 1312, 1331-35 (7th Cir.1990) (Posner, J. dissenting) (questioning rationality of system under which two defendants in possession of an identical amount of a drug may receive vastly different sentences depending on the weight of the medium).

. The following exchange took place at the sentencing hearing:
Defendant: They came up with'this great bargain price and enticed me into it. I usually wouldn't buy that amount unless it was ...
Court: A bargain?
Defendant: Yeah, the price was a bargain.

.Judge Heaney of the Eighth Circuit noted in his study that the Guidelines have substantially increased the length of time a federal offender can expect to serve. Prior to the implementation of the Guidelines, Judge Heaney notes, 42.4% of all defendants received probation-only sentences. Currently less than 15% of defendants receive straight probation. Gerald W. Heaney, The Reality of Guidelines Sentencing: No End to Disparity, 28 Am.Crim.Law.Rev. 161, 183 (1991) (hereinafter Guidelines Sentencing). This is true even though the enabling statute expressly approves the imposition of probation-only sentences for first time offenders who have not been convicted of a crime of violence. 28 U.S.C. § 994(j).

. See supra note 3.

. It is proper to enhance a defendant’s sentence for conduct related to the offense of conviction such as role in the offense, degree of planning required, and the defendant’s criminal history. The Guidelines already do this, but they go further by also mandating incremental penalties for separate offenses that the prosecution has not and may not be able to prove.