United States v. Sadonnie Marquis Kitchen

705 F. App'x 842
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedAugust 14, 2017
Docket16-13691 Non-Argument Calendar
StatusUnpublished

This text of 705 F. App'x 842 (United States v. Sadonnie Marquis Kitchen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh 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. Sadonnie Marquis Kitchen, 705 F. App'x 842 (11th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Sadonnie Kitchen appeals his conviction and 60-month sentence for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. On appeal, he argues that: (1) he should not have received an increased base offense level based on his prior conviction under Florida’s drug-trafficking statute; and (2) his conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) is void, because the statute is unconstitutional facially and as applied. After careful review, we affirm.

When reviewing a district court’s findings with respect to guidelines issues, we consider legal issues de novo, factual findings for clear error, and the court’s application of the Sentencing Guidelines to the facts with due deference, which is akin to clear error review. United States v. Rothenberg, 610 F.3d 621, 624 (11th Cir. 2010). We review the constitutionality of statutes de novo. United States v. Scott, 263 F.3d 1270, 1271 (11th Cir. 2001). To preserve an issue for appeal, a party must raise an objection that is sufficient to apprise the trial court and the opposing party of the particular grounds upon which appellate relief will later be sought. United States v. Straub, 508 F.3d 1003, 1011 (11th Cir. 2007).

We review issues raised for the first time on appeal only for plain error, but have said that allowing a conviction to stand under a statute which Congress was without power to enact is plain error. United States v. Williams, 121 F.3d 615, 618 (11th Cir. 1997). To establish plain error, a defendant must show (1) an error, (2) that is plain, and (3) that affected his substantial rights. United States v. Turner, 474 F.3d 1265, 1275-76 (11th Cir. 2007). If these three conditions are satisfied, we may exercise our discretion to recognize the error if it seriously affects the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings. Id. at 1276.

It is a cardinal rule of appellate review that a party may not challenge as error a ruling or other trial proceeding invited by that party. United States v. Baker, 432 F.3d 1189, 1216 (11th Cir. 2005), abrogated on other grounds, Davis v. Washington, 547 U.S. 813, 821, 126 S.Ct. 2266, 165 L.Ed.2d 224 (2006). The doctrine of invited error is implicated when a party induces or invites the district court into making an error. Id. Where invited error exists, a court cannot invoke the plain error rule and reverse. Id.

First, we are unpersuaded by Kitchen’s claim that the district court erred by increasing his base offense level based on his prior conviction under Florida’s drug-trafficking statute. The Sentencing Guidelines provide for a base offense level of 20 for unlawful possession of a firearm if “the defendant committed any part of the instant offense subsequent to sustaining one felony conviction of either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense.” U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(a)(4)(A). The term “controlled substance offense” means “an offense under federal or state law, punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year, that prohibits the manufacture, import, export, distribution, or dispensing of a controlled substance (or *844 a counterfeit substance) or the possession of a controlled substance (or a counterfeit substance) with intent to manufacture, import, export, distribute, or dispense.” Id. § 4B1.2(b). A sentencing court should look at the elements of the convicted offense and not the conduct underlying the conviction in determining if a prior conviction is a controlled substance offense under § 4B1.2. United States v. Lipsey, 40 F.3d 1200, 1201 (11th Cir. 1994).

We’ve held that a Georgia drug-trafficking statute that, in part, prohibited the possession of a certain amount of drugs, without explicitly requiring a showing of intent, was a “drug trafficking offense” under a guidelines provision worded identically to § 4B1.2(b). United States v. Madera-Madera, 333 F.3d 1228, 1232-34 (11th Cir. 2003). In Madera-Madera, we explained that “Georgia’s trafficking statute necessarily infers an intent to distribute once a defendant possesses a certain amount of drugs,” and that Georgia law recognized that someone in possession of a particular amount of drugs “plans on distributing and thereby ‘trafficking’ those drugs.” Id. at 1232-33. Thus, we concluded that failing to recognize drug trafficking as a controlled substance offense would produce an anomalous result under Georgia’s three-tiered scheme for drug crimes, because a defendant convicted for drug trafficking would not receive an enhanced sentence while a defendant convicted for the lesser offense of possession with intent to distribute any amount of drugs would. Id. at 1233-34.

At the time of Kitchen’s conviction, Florida’s drug-trafficking statute provided felony penalties for any person “who knowingly sells, purchases, manufactures, delivers, or brings into this state, or who is knowingly in actual or constructive possession of’ between 4 grams and 30 kilograms of hydrocodone. Fla. Stat. § 893.135(l)(c)la (2010). We’ve previously addressed whether Florida’s drug-trafficking statute qualified as a “serious drug offense” under the ACCA. United States v. James, 430 F.3d 1150, 1154-55 (11th Cir. 2005), overruled on other grounds by James v. United States, 550 U.S. 192, 127 S.Ct. 1586, 167 L.Ed.2d 532 (2007). In James, we noted that Florida has a three-tiered scheme for drug crimes similar to Georgia’s, and held that, like the Georgia drug-trafficking statute in Madera-Madera, the Florida statute inferred intent to distribute from the quantity of drugs. Id. We determined that it was not necessary for the statute to include intent as an element under the ACCA’s definition of a “serious drug offense,” which included any offense “involving” intent to distribute. Id. at 1155. The word “involving,” we explained, meant that serious drug offenses could include offenses that did not have intent as an element. Id. We also said that, as in Madera-Madera, holding that a drug-trafficking conviction in Florida was not a serious drug offense would produce an anomalous result. Id.

After James and Madera-Madera, the Supreme Court held that, when analyzing a statute to determine whether it is a violent felony under the ACCA, “sentencing courts may not apply the modified categorical approach when the crime of which the defendant was convicted has a single, indivisible set of elements.” Descamps v. United States, 570 U.S. 254, 133 S.Ct 2276, 2282, 186 L.Ed.2d 438 (2013).

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Related

United States v. Williams
121 F.3d 615 (Eleventh Circuit, 1997)
United States v. William Andrew Scott
263 F.3d 1270 (Eleventh Circuit, 2001)
United States v. Antonio Madera-Madera
333 F.3d 1228 (Eleventh Circuit, 2003)
United States v. Alphonso James, Jr.
430 F.3d 1150 (Eleventh Circuit, 2005)
United States v. Marvin Baker
432 F.3d 1189 (Eleventh Circuit, 2005)
United States v. Trelliny T. Turner
474 F.3d 1265 (Eleventh Circuit, 2007)
United States v. Straub
508 F.3d 1003 (Eleventh Circuit, 2007)
Davis v. Washington
547 U.S. 813 (Supreme Court, 2006)
James v. United States
550 U.S. 192 (Supreme Court, 2007)
United States v. Wright
607 F.3d 708 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Rothenberg
610 F.3d 621 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)
United States v. David Lipsey
40 F.3d 1200 (Eleventh Circuit, 1994)
Descamps v. United States
133 S. Ct. 2276 (Supreme Court, 2013)
Mathis v. United States
579 U.S. 500 (Supreme Court, 2016)
United States v. Nakey Demetruis White
837 F.3d 1225 (Eleventh Circuit, 2016)

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Bluebook (online)
705 F. App'x 842, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-sadonnie-marquis-kitchen-ca11-2017.