Kornegay v. United States

CourtDistrict of Columbia Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 3, 2020
Docket18-CM-370
StatusPublished

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Opinion

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DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COURT OF APPEALS

No. 18-CM-370

DARNELL W. KORNEGAY, APPELLANT,

v.

UNITED STATES, APPELLEE.

Appeal from the Superior Court of the District of Columbia (CMD-14607-17)

(Hon. Patricia A. Broderick, Trial Judge)

(Argued October 23, 2019 Decided September 3, 2020)

Nigel A. Barrella for appellant.

Kevin Birney, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Jesse K. Liu, United States Attorney, and Elizabeth Trosman, Suzanne Grealy Curt, and Andrea Coronado, Assistant United States Attorneys, were on the brief, for appellee.

Before EASTERLY and MCLEESE, Associate Judges, and STEADMAN, Senior Judge.

Opinion for the court by Associate Judge EASTERLY.

Dissenting opinion by Senior Judge STEADMAN at page 19. 2

EASTERLY, Associate Judge: During a search after a traffic stop, police

found less than two ounces of marijuana on and near Darnell W. Kornegay’s

person. Mr. Kornegay was convicted after a bench trial of possession with intent

to distribute a controlled substance (“PWID”). Relying on recent amendments to

the D.C. Code, he argues on appeal as he did at trial that, because it is now

expressly lawful for an adult to possess less than two ounces of marijuana and

because less than two ounces of marijuana in these circumstances no longer falls

within the definition of a controlled substance, it cannot be a crime to possess with

the intent to distribute that amount of marijuana. Alternatively, he argues that the

evidence of his intent to distribute marijuana is legally insufficient. We agree that

it was lawful for Mr. Kornegay to possess less than two ounces of marijuana in

these circumstances, need not address his second argument, and remand for the

trial court to vacate his conviction.

I. Facts

Officers of the United States Park Police pulled over Mr. Kornegay, then

twenty-two, on August 24, 2017, for a suspected window-tint violation as he was

driving in the 2600 block of Southern Avenue Southeast. As one officer

approached the vehicle, he noticed Mr. Kornegay reaching underneath his seat. 3

After instructing Mr. Kornegay to roll down his window, the officer saw a clear

plastic bag containing a “green plant like material” in the armrest of the driver’s

door. The officer then directed Mr. Kornegay to step out of the vehicle and patted

him down. Near Mr. Kornegay’s waistband, the officer felt “an unnatural bulge”

which turned out to be two more sandwich bags of a “green plant like material.”

All three bags contained marijuana, the combined weight of which was

approximately 1.73 ounces. The officers also recovered $769 in cash from Mr.

Kornegay’s pants pocket, as well as additional empty plastic sandwich bags and a

digital scale bearing a “green plant like material residue” from beneath the driver’s

seat of the car.

Mr. Kornegay was charged with PWID marijuana, in violation of D.C. Code

§ 48-904.01(a)(1) (2014 Repl. & 2020 Supp.). At a bench trial, a Metropolitan

Police Department (“MPD”) officer testified as an expert in the “packaging,

distribution, and sale of marijuana on the streets of the District of Columbia.” He

testified that, with the scale, marijuana, plastic bags, and cash, Mr. Kornegay, at

the time of his arrest, “ha[d] everything . . . need[ed] to sell marijuana.” Mr.

Kornegay testified in his own defense. He admitted that he smoked marijuana and

stated that on the night he was pulled over, he was heading to a birthday party and

was taking some marijuana with him to give as a gift to the “birthday girl” and to 4

share with friends at the party. He testified that he was carrying cash that evening

because he liked to pay for things in cash. The court did not credit Mr. Kornegay’s

testimony and found him guilty of PWID marijuana. This appeal followed.

II. Legal Framework

For decades, marijuana has been defined in the D.C. Code as “a controlled

substance.” See District of Columbia Uniform Controlled Substances Act of 1981,

D.C. Law 4-29 §§ 102(3), 212(b), 401(a)(1) (1981). As such, D.C. Code § 48-

904.01(a)(1), which makes it a crime “for any person knowingly or intentionally

to . . . possess[] with intent to . . . distribute[] a controlled substance,” has long

been understood to apply to marijuana in any amount.1 But in 2014, the law

governing marijuana changed significantly.

1 Reaching back further in time, marijuana was designated a “poison,” the actual sale of which without the proper license was unlawful. See An Act to regulate the practice of pharmacy and the sale of poisons in the District of Columbia, Pub. L. No. 148, ch. 2084, § 13, 34 Stat. 175, 180 (1906). See generally Richard J. Bonnie & Charles H. Whitebread, II, The Forbidden Fruit and the Tree of Knowledge: An Inquiry into the Legal History of American Marijuana Prohibition, 56 Va. L. Rev. 971, 989–91, 998–1011 (1970) (discussing the evolution of the criminalization of marijuana). 5

First, the D.C. Council enacted the Marijuana Possession Decriminalization

Amendment Act of 2014, which made it only a civil infraction for a person to

possess or “transfer without remuneration” one ounce or less of marijuana. D.C.

Law 20-126, § 101(a) (codified as amended at D.C. Code § 48-1201(a)). The

impetus for the legislation was the acknowledged absence of a strong public health

rationale for marijuana criminalization,2 coupled with a reassessment of its costs,

including the disproportionate arrest rates of African Americans for marijuana

possession3 and “the devastating toll” of these arrests on the individuals, their

2 Marijuana Possession Decriminalization Amendment Act of 2014, D.C. Council, Report on Bill 20-409, at 6 (2014) (noting “that marijuana is generally accepted to be no more harmful or addictive than alcohol or tobacco, perhaps less so”). 3 The Council cited data showing, among other things, that (1) marijuana possession arrests had increased 62% between 2001 and 2010 and that the District’s per capita marijuana arrest rate in 2010 was higher than any other state in the nation; and (2) of the individuals arrested for a single count of marijuana possession in the District between 2010 and 2013, the percentage of African American arrestees was never lower than 87.72% and went as high as 93.77%, even though African Americans are only about half of the District’s population and the use of marijuana by blacks and whites is comparable. Report on Bill 20-409, at 3–4. 6

families, and communities,4 as well as the diversion of law enforcement, public

defender, and judicial resources flowing from these arrests.5

The Council enacted D.C. Code § 48-1201(a) against the backdrop of strong

public opinion in favor of decriminalization of marijuana for personal use.6 But

the District’s voters were not satisfied, and later that same year they went further

and approved the Legalization of Possession of Minimal Amounts of Marijuana for

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