Pubdate: Sat, 11 Aug 2001
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: David Rosenzweig, Times Staff Writer

U.S. TO CHALLENGE DRUG SENTENCE RULING

Law: Court panel says judges can't add prison time, based on quantity of 
narcotics, after juries reach verdicts. The decision could reopen many 
trafficking cases.

The U.S. government moved swiftly Friday to challenge a federal appeals 
court ruling that threatens the validity of thousands of drug trafficking 
sentences.

Wasting no time, Solicitor General Theodore Olson authorized federal 
prosecutors to a seek a rehearing of a decision Thursday by a panel of the 
U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

In a 2-1 decision, the panel declared unconstitutional parts of a 1984 
federal law that allows judges to decide, after a jury verdict, the 
quantity of drugs found on the defendant. If the amount is big enough, the 
judge can add time to the sentence beyond the statutory maximum. The 
appeals court panel said it is up to the jury, not the judge, to determine 
the quantity of drugs found on a defendant. The ruling could also mean an 
end to mandatory minimum sentences in federal drug cases, because the parts 
of the law declared unconstitutional also involve mandatory minimums, which 
give a judge no discretion in sentencing.

The legislation at issue lets judges raise penalties beyond the statutory 
maximums based on drug quantities. Prosecutors fear that the ruling could 
mean the resentencing of many convicted drug traffickers serving prison time.

Breaking with four other circuit courts, the panel said the law did not 
square with a more recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

The 9th Circuit ruling grew out of an appeal by Calvin Buckland of Tacoma, 
Wash., convicted of possessing an undetermined amount of methamphetamine 
with intent to distribute. A judge gave him 27 years after determining that 
he had more than 17 pounds of the drug.

"The District Court erred by sentencing Buckland on the basis of a drug 
quantity finding that was not submitted to a jury and established beyond a 
reasonable doubt," the appeals court wrote. Buckland, it said, should have 
gotten no more than the 20-year statutory maximum.

The ruling affects federal court cases in California, eight other Western 
states, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Federal prosecutors were instructed Friday to request a review of the 
decision by a larger, 11-member panel of the 9th Circuit Court.
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