U.S. v. Singleterry

• Decision Date: 03 May 1994
• Docket Number: No. 93-2232,93-2232
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Daryl E. SINGLETERRY, Defendant, Appellant. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 733

29 F.3d 733

UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. Daryl E. SINGLETERRY, Defendant, Appellant.

No. 93-2232.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Heard May 3, 1994.

Decided July 18, 1994.

Stephen H. MacKenzie, Portland, ME, for appellant.

Michael M. DuBose, Asst. U.S. Atty., with whom Jay P. McCloskey, U.S. Atty., Portland, ME, was on brief, for appellee.

Before TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge, COFFIN, Senior Circuit Judge, and STAHL, Circuit Judge.

STAHL, Circuit Judge.

In this appeal, defendant-appellant Daryl E. Singleterry contests his jury conviction and resulting sentence for violation of federal drug trafficking laws. Singleterry raises two issues for our consideration. First, he protests the district court's refusal to instruct the jury to determine whether the prosecution produced sufficient evidence to establish the trustworthiness of his voluntary, extrajudicial confession. Second, Singleterry, who is black, maintains that his sentence violates the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment because the difference in punishment for cocaine base ("crack") offenses and cocaine ("cocaine powder") offenses is either irrational or racially discriminatory. Finding neither argument persuasive, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

On January 14, 1993, Maine law enforcement agents, responding to reports of drug dealing at the Days Inn in Kittery, Maine, commenced surveillance of the motel. That evening, they observed Jamee Landry, an associate of Singleterry, exit Room 225 with George Wilson, another Singleterry associate and suspected drug dealer. The two entered Landry's car and drove to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where the agents lost their trail. Early the next morning, after they saw Landry enter Room 225, the agents executed warrants to search both Room 225 and Landry's car.

The search revealed a number of items probative of ongoing, armed drug trafficking. The agents first entered and searched Room 225, where they found Singleterry and Landry. They seized $2061 and a wallet containing Singleterry's driver's license from the pocket of a jacket on a night table in the room. Elsewhere in the room, the agents discovered two savings account passbooks, both in Singleterry's name, with a combined balance of $5100. In Landry's car, the agents found a plastic bag containing 6.46 grams of crack cocaine in the glove compartment, a leather gun holster on the front passenger seat, as well as a fully loaded semi-automatic handgun under the same seat.

After this search concluded, the agents arrested Singleterry, and properly informed him of his "Miranda rights." Singleterry then provided the agents with a voluntary confession telling them that he personally paid $250 to his source in Lawrence, Massachusetts, for the cocaine base found in the vehicle. He also admitted that he had stolen the handgun seized by the agents, explaining that he needed the handgun to protect himself from individuals who were jealous of his cocaine business. In addition, Singleterry told the agents that he did not have a job, that he had been dealing cocaine base for a considerable period of time, and that the cash seized from his jacket pocket as well as the money in his savings accounts were proceeds from his sale of cocaine base in the Portsmouth, New Hampshire, area. Finally, Singleterry stated that, as in this instance, he purchased most of the cocaine base he sold from a source in Lawrence or Lowell, Massachusetts. According to Singleterry, he would ordinarily pay $250 for a quarter ounce of cocaine base and then sell it for $1250.

Singleterry was charged in a three count indictment with possession with intent to distribute cocaine, 21 U.S.C. Secs. 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(B)(iii) (1988 & Supp. IV 1992) (Count I), the use and carrying of a firearm in connection with a drug trafficking offense, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 924(c) (1988 & Supp. IV 1992) (Count II), and deriving certain personal property from proceeds obtained as the result of drug trafficking activity, 21 U.S.C. Sec. 853 (1988) (Count III). The parties agreed to have the district court decide Count III on the basis of the trial evidence.

At trial, the government introduced evidence probative of the facts described above, relying heavily on the agents' live testimony concerning Singleterry's confession. At the close of the government's case in chief, the defense moved for judgment of acquittal. See Fed.R.Crim.P. 29(a). Defendant's primary contention was that the government's evidence could not suffice to support a conviction because the government did not adequately corroborate Singleterry's confession. See Opper v. United States, 348 U.S. 84, 75 S.Ct. 158, 99 L.Ed. 101 (1954) (prohibiting convictions on the basis of uncorroborated confessions). The government argued, inter alia, that there was ample evidence to demonstrate the truth and accuracy of the confession. The district court reserved judgment until the close of all the evidence. After the defense presented no evidence, the court denied defendant's motion in a detailed ruling from the bench.

Singleterry timely requested a jury instruction that "as a matter of law a confession alone is not sufficient evidence upon which to convict the defendant, that the confession must be accompanied by additional corroborative [evidence] or sufficient indicia of reliability." The district court refused to do so, explaining that the corroboration inquiry is for the court and not the jury. According to the district court, the role of the jury is simply to consider whether the evidence establishes each element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt, although the jury is free to question the probative value of a confession in light of the strength or weakness of the corroborative evidence.

After deliberating for less than an hour, the jury convicted Singleterry on Counts I and II. The district court later issued an order of forfeiture in resolution of Count III.

At sentencing, the district court found that the offense level, including relevant conduct, involved a total of 73.66 grams of cocaine base, resulting in a base offense level of 32. United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual, Sec. 2D1.1 (Nov.1993); see also 21 U.S.C. Sec. 841(b)(1)(B) (prescribing minimum and maximum sentences). Because Singleterry had knowingly given false testimony at a pre-trial suppression hearing, the court added a two-level enhancement for obstruction of justice. U.S.S.G. Sec. 3C1.1. With a total adjusted base offense level of 34 and a criminal history category of III, the guideline range on Count I was 188 to 235 months. ¹ U.S.S.G. Ch. 5, Pt. A. The district court selected the minimum sentence of 188 months, imposing as well the consecutive 60 month sentence mandated by 18 U.S.C. Sec. 924(c) for the firearm offense. In another ruling from the bench, the district court rejected Singleterry's argument that stiffer penalties for cocaine base offenses, as opposed to cocaine powder offenses, violate Singleterry's right to equal protection of the law.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Trustworthiness of Confessions and the Role of the Jury

Singleterry contends that the district court committed legal error when it refused to instruct the jury on the need for corroboration of his confession. Specifically, Singleterry urges us to adopt one of two propositions. First, he suggests that, when the government's case rests primarily on a defendant's confession, the district court must instruct the jury to find the confession to be trustworthy before considering it as evidence of guilt. Second, Singleterry asserts that, even in the absence of a general rule mandating such an instruction, the district court is obliged to instruct the jury on the corroboration requirement where the evidence of trustworthiness is so weak that a jury might differ from the court in its resolution of the question.

Whether the court must assign such a role to the jury is a pure question of law subject to plenary review. See, e.g., United States v. Gallo, 20 F.3d 7, 11 (1st Cir.1994) (holding that de novo review is customary for questions of law) (citing In re Howard, 996 F.2d 1320, 1327 (1st Cir.1993)). Thus, although the district court's reasoning may prove persuasive, and its conclusion coincide with our own, we are free to reject a reasonable reading of the law in favor of the interpretation we view as correct.

To begin with, we note that a defendant's own statements are never considered to be hearsay when offered by the government; they are treated as admissions, competent as evidence of guilt without any special guarantee of their trustworthiness. See Fed.R.Evid. 801(d)(2) & advisory committee's note; see also United States v. Barletta, 652 F.2d 218, 219 (1st Cir.1981). Nevertheless, there is a danger that the jury will rush to credit a confession without seriously considering whether the defendant confessed to a crime he did not commit. As a result, the federal courts have adopted common law rules designed to prevent a jury from convicting the defendant solely on the basis of an untrustworthy confession. The general rule is that a jury cannot rely on an extrajudicial, post-offense confession, even when voluntary, in the absence of "substantial independent evidence which would tend to establish the trustworthiness of [the] statement." Opper v. United States, 348 U.S. 84, 93, 75 S.Ct. 158, 164, 99 L.Ed. 101 (1954). See also Smith v. United States, 348 U.S. 147, 75 S.Ct. 194, 99 L.Ed. 192 (1954); Warszower v. United States, 312 U.S. 342, 61 S.Ct. 603, 85 L.Ed. 876 (1941); United States v. O'Connell, 703 F.2d 645 (1st Cir.1983). ² The Court has explained that independent proof of the commission of the charged offense is not the only means of establishing the trustworthiness of the defendant's confession; another "available mode of corroboration is for the independent evidence to bolster the confession itself and thereby prove the offense 'through' the statements of the accused." Smith...