U.S. v. Hester

• Decision Date: 07 January 2000
• Docket Number: No. 97-9232,97-9232
• Citation: 199 F.3d 1287
• Parties: (11th Cir. 2000) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. SAMUEL J. HESTER, Defendant-Appellant
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1287

199 F.3d 1287 (11th Cir. 2000) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
SAMUEL J. HESTER, Defendant-Appellant. No. 97-9232 IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT Jan. 7, 2000

Page 1288

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia D. C. Docket No. 93-00007-3-CR-DF

Before BLACK and WILSON, Circuit Judges, and RONEY, Senior Circuit Judge.

BLACK, Circuit Judge:

After a jury convicted Appellant Samuel J. Hester of 5 counts relating to the production and sale of marijuana, the district court imposed a 20-year mandatory minimum sentence which significantly exceeded

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the range prescribed by the Sentencing Guidelines. Appellant contends that the district court erred in imposing the mandatory minimum sentence because the disparity between the Guidelines and the mandatory minimum violates the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses and because the amount of marijuana involved constitutes an element of the offense which the Government did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt. We discern no error and affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

On April 15, 1994, a jury convicted Appellant of conspiracy to manufacture, possess with intent to distribute, and distribute marijuana; manufacture of marijuana; distribution of marijuana; possession with intent to distribute marijuana; and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. The Government filed a notice of enhancement based on Appellant's prior Georgia conviction for the sale of marijuana. At Appellant's first sentencing, the district court found Appellant responsible for 2,924 marijuana plants. United States Sentencing Guidelines 2D1.1(c)(4), as then in effect, instructed the district court to impose an equivalency of one kilogram per plant for an offense involving more than 50 plants. This produced a Guideline range of 240 to 262 months. Similarly, 21 U.S.C. 841(b)(1)(A)(vii) contains a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years for a drug amount in excess of 1,000 plants combined with a prior conviction. The district court selected the upper end of the Guideline range and sentenced Appellant to 262 months. Appellant filed his first notice of appeal on February 10, 1995.

Effective November 1, 1995, the Sentencing Commission changed the Guidelines by adding Amendment 516 which applies retroactively. Amendment 516 altered the weight calculation with respect to marijuana plants and instructed district courts to use a standard of 100 grams per plant (or the actual weight of the plant if higher) regardless of the number of plants involved in the offense. The Amendment reveals that the Sentencing Commission felt that 100 grams per plant better reflected the true weight of marijuana plants. Accordingly, on May 20, 1996, this Court affirmed Appellant's conviction but remanded for resentencing in light of Amendment 516.

On remand, on July 5, 1996, the district court observed that with the application of Amendment 516 the Guideline range reached from 108 to 135 months but that the statutory mandatory minimum remained at 20 years. The district court thus imposed the mandatory minimum sentence. This appeal followed.

II. DISCUSSION

Appellant offers two arguments against the imposition of the mandatory minimum sentence. First, Appellant claims that the difference between the Guideline range and the statutory mandatory minimum violates the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses. Second, Appellant maintains that the Government failed to prove the amount of drugs as an element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. This Court reviews the factual findings of the district court for clear error but reviews the district court's interpretation of the Sentencing Guidelines de novo. See United States v. Moore, 6 F.3d 715, 718 (11th Cir. 1993). We review constitutional challenges to a statutory scheme de novo. See United States v. Dascenzo, 152 F.3d 1300, 1301 (11th Cir. 1998).

A. Validity of the Sentencing Scheme

In United States v. Osburn, this Court upheld the former sentencing structure, under 841(b)(1)(B)(vii) and 2D1.1 of the Guidelines, in the face of a constitutional challenge. 955 F.2d 1500 (11th Cir. 1992). We explained that Congress could rationally have decided that large-scale drug traffickers present a greater danger to society and deserve harsher punishment. See id. at 1508. Appellant now

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asks us to conclude that Congress acted irrationally, and thus in violation of the Constitution, by standardizing the plant to weight conversion ratio in the Sentencing Guidelines without a concomitant change in the governing statute.¹ The only Court of Appeals that has considered this issue rejected Appellant's argument. See United States v. Marshall, 95 F.3d 700, 701 (8th Cir. 1996).

We agree with the Eighth Circuit that Amendment 516 did not render the sentencing regime unconstitutional. We need not determine Congress's justification for approving the Amendment; we need only examine the decision to evaluate whether it rests on a rational basis. Congress could have approved of a more uniform approach to plant and weight equivalency while it decided to maintain a severe penalty for large-scale traffickers. We approved of such a consideration in Osburn. Congress might have acted incrementally and ratified the Guideline change as a precursor to Congress's reconsideration of the statutory mandatory minimum. Such an act by Congress would survive a rational basis review. See Williamson v. Lee Optical Co., 348 U.S. 483, 489, 75 S. Ct. 461, 465 (1955). Under either approach, Congress did not act irrationally by approving Amendment 516.²

This conclusion comports with other decisions that have considered arguable discrepancies between mandatory minimums and the Sentencing Guidelines. See, e.g., Neal v. United States, 516 U.S. 284, 296, 116 S. Ct. 763, 769 (1996) (upholding mandatory minimum with respect to LSD sentence despite its potential conflict with a provision of the Guidelines). It also reflects the general view that Congress enjoys wide latitude in deciding the severity of punishment for drug offenses. See, e.g., United States v. Solomon, 848 F.2d 156, 157-58 (11th Cir. 1998) (upholding punishment based on drug weight regardless of purity).

Finally, we reject Appellant's argument that the sentencing regime treats similar offenders differently in violation of the Equal Protection Clause. Appellant points out that two offenders with his criminal history and role in the offense caught with 999 and 1000 plants respectively would face guideline ranges of 86 to 108 months and 108 to 135 months but mandatory minimum sentences of 120 months and 240 months....