U.S. v. Bello

• Decision Date: 05 July 1985
• Docket Number: Nos. 84-5144,s. 84-5144
• Citation: 767 F.2d 1065
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. James Richard BELLO, Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. James Richard BELLO, Appellant. (L), 84-6473.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 1065

767 F.2d 1065

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. James Richard BELLO, Appellant.

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. James Richard BELLO, Appellant.

Nos. 84-5144 (L), 84-6473.

United States Court of Appeals,

Fourth Circuit.

Argued Feb. 8, 1985.

Decided July 5, 1985.

Reed E. Hundt, Washington, D.C. (David R. Hazelton, Latham, Watkins & Hills, Washington, D.C., on brief), for appellant.

James C. Savage, Asst. U.S. Atty., Baltimore, Md. (J. Frederick Motz, U.S. Atty., Baltimore, Md., on brief), for appellee.

Before WINTER, Chief Judge, MURNAGHAN, Circuit Judge, and MERHIGE, District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, sitting by designation.

MERHIGE, District Judge.

This appeal challenges, on due process and double jeopardy grounds, the length of the sentence imposed on the defendant-appellant at resentencing on one conviction, after he successfully appealed a number of related convictions. Though disagreeing with appellant's contentions in several important respects, we find that the sentence is unconstitutional.

The appellant, James Bello, was initially convicted for conspiring to distribute cocaine, ¹ distributing cocaine, ² and engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise. ³ On each of the convictions for conspiracy and distribution, the district judge imposed sentences of five years imprisonment to be served concurrent with one another. Mr. Bello was eligible for parole on these sentences. ⁴ On the conviction for continuing criminal enterprise, the district judge imposed a twelve-year prison sentence consecutive to the five-year term. By statute, no parole is available on a sentence imposed for engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise. ⁵

On Bello's first appeal, this court vacated the convictions on the conspiracy and distribution counts. See United States v. Raimondo, 721 F.2d 476, 477 (4th Cir.1983), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 105 S.Ct. 133, 83 L.Ed.2d 74 (1984). Bello had also appealed his conviction for engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise. We dismissed that appeal without prejudice because the record on that issue was not fully developed, noting that Mr. Bello could raise the issue separately by motion under 28 U.S.C. Sec. 2255. See id. at 476.

The vacated convictions, so we held, were of lesser included offenses of the count for engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise. Id. With those convictions vacated, only Mr. Bello's conviction for engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise remained, and we remanded the matter to the trial court for resentencing. We cited several recent cases for the proposition that, at re-sentencing, the district judge could impose any penalty authorized by statute for the conviction that remained--though observing that the punishment imposed on remand should not exceed the punishment initially imposed on all counts, unless the district judge satisfied the due process limitations of North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969).

On remand, the district judge recognized that Mr. Bello's prison record, after nearly two years in prison, ⁶ reflected that "rehabilitation ... is taking place." He did not identify any conduct or event justifying a more severe sentence, and imposed a sentence providing for incarceration for the same term as the combined sentences on the nine original counts. But the sentence appellant now faces is seventeen years with no parole eligibility, in contrast to his initial sentence of twelve years for engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise (which carries no parole eligibility) followed by five years for the cocaine conspiracy and distribution convictions (which do carry parole eligibility).

Shortly after his re-sentencing, Mr. Bello filed a timely notice of appeal of the new sentence. Several weeks later he filed a motion to correct the sentence, which the sentencing judge denied, 588 F.Supp. 102. Mr. Bello appeals that denial as well as the re-sentencing order itself. We address his constitutional challenges below.

Appellant contends that his re-sentencing violates due process because, while the second sentence is more severe than the initial sentencing package ⁷ on account of the absence of parole eligibility, the district judge did not provide any proper reasons for increasing the severity of the sentence. The Government, however, contends that the latest sentence is no more severe than the original sentencing package. Further, the Government argues that even if the sentence is more severe, it does not violate due process.

Due process imposes certain limitations on a judge who sentences a defendant after the defendant has successfully appealed a conviction and has been reconvicted on the offense or suffers other convictions on which resentencing is appropriate. In order for a judge to impose a sentence more severe than the one initially imposed, the judge must "affirmatively identify[ ] relevent conduct or events that occurred subsequent to the original sentencing proceedings." Wasman v. United States, --- U.S. ----, ----, 104 S.Ct. 3217, 3225, 82 L.Ed.2d 424 (1984); see also North Carolina v. Pearce, supra, 395 U.S. at 726, 89 S.Ct. at 2081.

We have no doubt that the subsequent sentence is more severe than the original one. The Government is correct, of course, that under both sentences Mr. Bello faced a total prison term of seventeen years. But, as we have stated, under the later sentence--unlike a portion of the original one--Bello is ineligible for parole. Although a later sentence imposed by a judge is for an identical term of imprisonment as the initial one, it is nevertheless more severe for purposes of due process if it provides for parole consideration later than the initial sentence. See United States v. Gilliss, 645 F.2d 1269, 1283 (8th Cir.1981); United States v. Hawthorne, 532 F.2d 318, 323-24 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 894, 97 S.Ct. 254, 50 L.Ed.2d 177 (1976); cf. In re United States, 588 F.2d 56, 60 (4th Cir.1978) (order allowing for possibility of earlier parole is a reduction of sentence and is therefore governed by Fed.R.Crim.P. 35), cert. denied, 441 U.S. 909, 99 S.Ct. 2004, 60 L.Ed.2d 380 (1979). If, as here, the re-sentencing is for the same term of imprisonment as the original sentence--but provides for no parole consideration, rather than for later parole consideration as in Gillis and Hawthorne--it is a fortiori more severe than the original sentence.

The Government contends that the imposition of the subsequent sentence--even if more severe than the original one--does not violate due process. Although the Government has not completely developed them, it has suggested essentially two arguments for its contention. Both are grounded in the fact that the judge, at re-sentencing, apparently attempted to effectuate his original sentence.

First, the Government suggests that in light of the sentencing judge's expressed and unimpeached desire at re-sentencing to effectuate his original sentence, the re-sentencing raises no reasonable presumption of vindictiveness that requires a justification by the sentencing judge. This is unpersuasive. Since Pearce, due process requires that where a judge sentences a defendant more severely after the defendant's successful appeal, a "presumption of vindictiveness" is raised, see United States v. Goodwin, 457 U.S. 368, 374, 102 S.Ct. 2485, 2489, 73 L.Ed.2d 74 (1982), that may only be overcome by the sentencing judge's advancing appropriate reasons. The Government has not cited any cases holding that the presumption is not raised where the sentencing judge expressed a desire to effectuate his original sentence on resentencing. We do not perceive any persuasive reason to create such an exception here. Regardless of the sentencing judge's expressed intent, the increased severity of the later sentence would create a reasonable apprehension of vindictiveness in defendants, such as Mr. Bello, that might well deter them from taking meritorious appeals. Due process protects against this. See Wasman, supra, --- U.S. at ----, 104 S.Ct. at 3225 (Powell, J., concurring, joined by Blackmun, J.); id. at ----, 104 S.Ct. at 3226 (Brennan, J., concurring, joined by Marshall, J.); id. (Stevens, J., concurring).

The second (and related) argument in support of the Government's position is that, even if the presumption of vindictiveness has been raised, the sentencing judge adequately rebutted it here by expressing his desire only to effectuate the original sentence. This argument, in our view, is no more persuasive than the first. The Supreme Court has recently had occasion, in Wasman, supra, to consider the sorts of reasons that a sentencing judge may advance to justify a more severe sentence. The Supreme Court indicated in Wasman that the judge must identify "relevant conduct or events that occurred subsequent to the original sentencing proceedings." See Wasman, supra, --- U.S. at ----, 104 S.Ct. at 3225. The Court had already made clear in Pearce that "relevant conduct or events" are those that throw "new light upon the defendant's 'life, health, habits, conduct, and mental and moral propensities.' " Id. at ----, 104 S.Ct. at 3225-26 (Powell, J., concurring), quoting North Carolina v. Pearce, supra, 395 U.S. at 723, 89 S.Ct. at 2079. ⁸ See also United States v. Whitley, 734 F.2d 994, 996 (1985) (en banc). (due process bars increased sentences where no intervening conduct or event justifies the increase). A sentencing judge's intent to effectuate the initial sentence is not such conduct or such an event, of course.

Thus, Mr. Bello's post-appeal sentence raises a presumption of vindictiveness because it is more severe than his initial sentence. That presumption is not rebutted by the fact that the sentencing judge apparently attempted to effectuate his original sentence. Further, the sentencing judge identified no other factors that would rebut the presumption. Accordingly, Mr. Bello's post-appeal sentence...