U.S. to Challenge Drug Sentence Ruling

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.