United States v. Charles Philip MacDonald

992 F.2d 967, 93 Daily Journal DAR 5693, 93 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 3274, 1993 U.S. App. LEXIS 10294, 1993 WL 139010
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMay 5, 1993
Docket92-50021
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 992 F.2d 967 (United States v. Charles Philip MacDonald) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Charles Philip MacDonald, 992 F.2d 967, 93 Daily Journal DAR 5693, 93 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 3274, 1993 U.S. App. LEXIS 10294, 1993 WL 139010 (9th Cir. 1993).

Opinion

KLEINFELD, Circuit Judge:

MacDonald was convicted of various crimes involving unlawful possession and sale of firearms. He appeals on two issues, whether his army court-martial conviction was a sufficient basis for felon in possession under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), and whether the judge erred in the guidelines calculation of offense level for the gun sales. We affirm.

MacDonald was court-martialed forty years ago for fraudulent enlistment, failure to obey a lawful order, and sale of a “liberty pass,” in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and sentenced to two years at hard labor. In 1989, he procured a federal firearms dealer’s license by lying on the ap *969 plication. Several times he met in his hotel lobby with a federal undercover agent and sold guns to him, without asking for identification or filling out required papers. He also sold several guns in the same manner to a man he knew was a convicted felon.

I. The Court-Martial.

No facts were in dispute on this issue. MacDonald argues that, because a general court-martial is not a court, and the military offenses of which he was convicted are not crimes in the civilian sense, he should not be deemed to have been convicted of a crime in a court for purposes of the felon in possession statute. Whether convictions such as MacDonald’s by general courts-martial are within the scope of § 922(g)(1) is an issue of statutory interpretation, and is thus reviewed de novo. Anderson v. United States, 966 F.2d 487, 489 (9th Cir.1992).

The statute at issue reads as follows:

(g) It shall be unlawful for any person—
(1) who has been convicted in any court of, a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year ...
to ship or transport in interstate or foreign commerce, or possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition; or to receive any firearm or ammunition which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce.

18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1).

MacDonald has been unable, as have we, to find authority for the proposition that military offenses without civilian equivalents are not crimes for purposes of § 922(g)(1). He correctly cites Parker v. Levy, 417 U.S. 733, 749-50, 94 S.Ct. 2547, 2558-59, 41 L.Ed.2d 439 (1974) and Middendorf v. Henry, 425 U.S. 25, 38, 96 S.Ct. 1281, 1289, 47 L.Ed.2d 556 (1976) for the proposition that the Uniform Code of Military Justice cannot be equated to a civilian criminal code. These cases also stand for the fact that the Uniform Code of Military Justice regulates a far broader range of conduct than a typical state criminal code. But he has not found authority for the proposition that conduct so criminalized is not a “crime” for purposes of the felon in possession statute. We can find no authority squarely on point either way. To the extent that any authority is analogous or suggestive, it holds that general courts-martial are courts, see United States v. Lee, 428 F.2d 917 (6th Cir.1970), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 1017, 92 S.Ct. 679, 30 L.Ed.2d 665 (1972); United States v. Noble, 613 F.Supp. 1224 (D.Mont.1985), and convictions in courts of foreign countries establish crimes for purposes of the felon in possession law, see United States v. Atkins, 872 F.2d 94 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 836, 110 S.Ct. 116, 107 L.Ed.2d 77 (1989); United States v. Winson, 793 F.2d 754 (6th Cir.1986).

The statute defines “crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year” in a way which would accept the military definition of a crime for purposes of determining if a defendant is a felon in possession:

The term “crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year” does not include—
(A) any Federal or State offenses pertaining to antitrust violations, unfair trade practices, restraints of trade, or other similar offenses relating to. the regulation of business practices, or
(B) any State offense classified by the laws of the State as a misdemeanor and punishable by a term of imprisonment of two years or less.
What constitutes a conviction of such a crime shall be determined in accordance with the law of the jurisdiction in which the proceedings were held.

18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(20). This provision requires that the meaning of a criminal conviction be drawn from the Uniform Code of Military Justice, not civilian law, where that was “the law' of the jurisdiction in which the proceedings were held.”

This deference toward the military definition is consistent with the recent decision of Congress to criminalize possession of a firearm by one who has been dishonorably discharged from the armed forces, whether convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year of imprisonment or not, see Act of May 19, 1986, P.L. 99-308, § 102, 100 Stat. 451, and with the general principle that civilian courts must grant full faith and credit to the *970 judgments of general courts-martial, see Grafton v. United States, 206 U.S. 333, 345, 27 S.Ct. 749, 751, 51 L.Ed. 1084 (1907). This construction is also consistent with the statutory purpose, “to keep guns out of the hands of presumptively risky people.” Dickerson v. New Banner Inst., Inc., 460 U.S. 103, 112 n. 6, 103 S.Ct. 986, 991 n. 6, 74 L.Ed.2d 845 (1983).

We hold that a general, court-martial is a “court” within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) and a conviction, such as MacDonald’s, for which an individual is punishable for a term exceeding one year, amounts to a “crime” for purposes of § 922(g)(1). We therefore affirm MacDonald’s conviction.

II. The Offense Level.

MacDonald argues that the district court erred in calculating his offense level under the guidelines. MacDonald’s offense level was increased for two things: the number of guns he sold knowing he could not lawfully sell them and the number he sold to persons he knew could not lawfully buy them.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Keone Jason Lee v. State of Alaska
Court of Appeals of Alaska, 2022
United States v. Brenden Vermilyea
667 F. App'x 624 (Ninth Circuit, 2016)
Gurson Gourzong v. Attorney General United States
826 F.3d 132 (Third Circuit, 2016)
United States v. Richard Shaffer
807 F.3d 943 (Eighth Circuit, 2015)
United States v. Shaffer
44 F. Supp. 3d 863 (N.D. Iowa, 2014)
United States v. Freddie Grant
753 F.3d 480 (Fourth Circuit, 2014)
RIVERA-VALENCIA
24 I. & N. Dec. 484 (Board of Immigration Appeals, 2008)
United States v. Guzman
207 F. App'x 219 (Third Circuit, 2006)
United States v. Copeland
102 F. App'x 855 (Fifth Circuit, 2004)
DiSalvatore v. Municipal Police Officers' Education & Training Commission
753 A.2d 309 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2000)
United States v. John W. Martinez
122 F.3d 421 (Seventh Circuit, 1997)
Denier v. State Board of Medicine, Bureau of Professional & Occupational Affairs
683 A.2d 949 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1996)
United States v. Ismael Morin-Montalbo
77 F.3d 491 (Ninth Circuit, 1996)
United States v. Isaac Gamble Kyle
67 F.3d 309 (Ninth Circuit, 1995)
United States v. Craig Allen Allbee, Jr.
52 F.3d 328 (Seventh Circuit, 1995)
United States v. John Spencer Daughetee
30 F.3d 140 (Ninth Circuit, 1994)
United States v. Alers
852 F. Supp. 310 (D. New Jersey, 1994)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
992 F.2d 967, 93 Daily Journal DAR 5693, 93 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 3274, 1993 U.S. App. LEXIS 10294, 1993 WL 139010, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-charles-philip-macdonald-ca9-1993.