United States v. Chester Lee Durbin

542 F.2d 486, 1976 U.S. App. LEXIS 6791
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedOctober 6, 1976
Docket76-1201
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 542 F.2d 486 (United States v. Chester Lee Durbin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth 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. Chester Lee Durbin, 542 F.2d 486, 1976 U.S. App. LEXIS 6791 (8th Cir. 1976).

Opinions

STEPHENSON, Circuit Judge.

Chester L. Durbin appeals from the district court’s 1 enhancement of his sentence. The exclusive issue raised in this appeal is whether the Constitution proscribes the imposition of a more harsh sentence upon re-sentencing when there has been neither a new trial nor a reconviction. Because we conclude that the imposition of a more severe punishment under such circumstances constitutes a violation of the Fifth Amendment prohibition of double jeopardy, we reverse.

Appellant pled guilty on August 23,1965, to participating in a robbery, with two other individuals, of the Bank of Mountain View, Arkansas. 18 U.S.C. § 2113(d). The district court, taking into consideration a prior conviction for violation of the Dyer Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2312, imposed a sentence of 12 years. Subsequently, the Dyer Act conviction was set aside and appellant petitioned the district court to vacate or correct the 12-year bank robbery sentence.

On February 27, 1976, the trial court, after a hearing, vacated the original sentence as required by United States v. Tucker, 404 U.S. 443, 446-49, 92 S.Ct. 589, 30 L.Ed.2d 592 (1972), for the reason that appellant’s prior conviction for violation of the Dyer Act had been found constitutionally invalid. On resentencing the district court, primarily relying on the fact that appellant had engaged in criminal activity while on parole from his 12-year sentence, imposed a sentence of 15 years.2

Appellant contends that the imposition of a more extreme sentence upon resentencing is violative of the ban against double jeopardy. A contrary result, according to appellant, would produce a chilling effect upon the exercise of basic constitutional rights. In contrast, the government, essentially relying on North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 719-21, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969), asserts that a court upon resentencing has discretion to order a greater sentence than was originally imposed. Cf. United States v. Sanders, 435 F.2d 165 (9th Cir. 1970), cert. denied, 401 U.S. 944, 91 S.Ct. 954, 28 L.Ed.2d 225 (1971).

It is beyond dispute that the Fifth Amendment guarantee against double jeopardy provides protection against multiple punishments for the same offense. North Carolina v. Pearce, supra, 395 U.S. at 717, 89 S.Ct. 2072; United States v. Benz, 282 U.S. 304, 308-11, 51 S.Ct. 113, 75 L.Ed. 354 (1931); Ex parte Lange, 85 U.S. (18 Wall.) 163, 168, 21 L.Ed. 872 (1874); United States v. Turner, 518 F.2d 14, 15 (7th Cir. 1975). The Supreme Court in Ex parte Lange, supra, described this constitutional principle as follows:

If there is anything settled in the jurisprudence of England and America, it is that no man can be twice lawfully punished for the same offence. And though there have been nice questions in the application of this rule to cases in which the act charged was such as to come within the definition of more than one statutory offence, or to bring the party within the jurisdiction of more than one [488]*488court, there has never been any doubt of its entire and complete protection of the party when a second punishment is proposed in the same court, on the same facts, for the same statutory offence.

Id. at 168. In addition, the concept of prohibition against double punishment was more recently reaffirmed in North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969), in which the Supreme Court held that the constitutional guarantee against exposure to double jeopardy “absolutely requires that punishment already exacted must be fully ‘credited’ in imposing' sentence upon a new conviction for the same offense.” Id. at 718-19, 89 S.Ct. at 2077 (footnote omitted). See also United States v. Wilson, 420 U.S. 332, 343, 95 S.Ct. 1013, 43 L.Ed.2d 232 (1975).

North Carolina v. Pearce, supra, contrary to the government’s contention, does not render the bar against double jeopardy inapplicable to the instant case. The Supreme Court in Pearce held that the guarantee against double jeopardy does not restrict the length of a sentence upon reconviction. The Court emphasized that its decision “rests ultimately upon the premise that the original conviction has, at the defendant’s behest, been wholly nullified and the slate wiped clean.” 395 U.S. at 721, 89 S.Ct. at 2078. Pearce, therefore, is distinguishable from the facts in the instant case in that Durbin has neither sought nor acquired a nullification of his bank robbery conviction.

Furthermore, we do not believe that appellant’s motion to vacate or correct his sentence should constitute a waiver of his right not to be twice punished for the same offense. See Green v. United States, 355 U.S. 184, 191-98, 78 S.Ct. 221, 2 L.Ed.2d 199 (1957).3 Waiver usually represents some form of knowing relinquishment of a right. Cf. Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 465, 58 S.Ct. 1019, 82 L.Ed. 1461 (1938). Appellant, without notice that his sentence might be increased, petitioned the district court pursuant to United States v. Tucker, 404 U.S. 443, 446-49, 92 S.Ct. 589, 30 L.Ed.2d 592 (1972), for “reconsideration” of his sentence in light of his constitutionally void Dyer Act conviction.4 To condition Durbin’s attack upon his sentence on a coerced surrender of a valid claim of double jeopardy would create a dilemmatic unfairness that conflicts with the underlying nature of the constitutional bar against double jeopardy. To hold otherwise would cast a chill upon the exercise of fundamental constitutional rights. See United States v. Jackson, 390 U.S. 570, 582, 88 S.Ct. 1209, 20 L.Ed.2d 138 (1968). See also Griffin v. California, 380 U.S. 609, 610-15, 85 S.Ct. 1229, 14 L.Ed.2d 106 (1965).

It should also be noted that we are not confronted with a situation in which a sentencing judge originally imposed a wholly illegal or completely void sentence. See United States v. Turner, 518 F.2d 14, 16 (7th Cir. 1975). Cf. Bozza v. United States, 330 U.S. 160, 165-67, 67 S.Ct. 645, 91 L.Ed. 818 (1947); United States v. Solomon, 468 F.2d 848, 850-52 (7th Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 410 U.S. 986, 93 S.Ct.

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United States v. Chester Lee Durbin
542 F.2d 486 (Eighth Circuit, 1976)

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Bluebook (online)
542 F.2d 486, 1976 U.S. App. LEXIS 6791, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-chester-lee-durbin-ca8-1976.