United States v. Samuel Ford

750 F.3d 952, 2014 WL 1717917, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 8289
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedMay 2, 2014
Docket11-3736
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 750 F.3d 952 (United States v. Samuel Ford) 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. Samuel Ford, 750 F.3d 952, 2014 WL 1717917, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 8289 (8th Cir. 2014).

Opinion

SMITH, Circuit Judge.

This case is before us on remand from the Supreme Court of the United States. On June 20, 2013, we affirmed Samuel Ford’s convictions for knowingly and intentionally distributing a mixture of heroin to Joseph Scolaro resulting in Seolaro’s death, with the distribution occurring within 1,000 feet of a school, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(C), 851, and 860(a) (“Count 1”), and knowingly and intentionally distributing a mixture containing heroin and a mixture containing cocaine base, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(C), and 851 (“Count 2”). United States v. Ford, 717 F.3d 612 (8th Cir.2013), rev’d, — U.S. -, 134 S.Ct. 1274, 1275, 188 L.Ed.2d 290 (2014). In affirming Ford’s conviction on Count 1, we held that “the government presented sufficient, credible evidence to support Ford’s conviction of distributing heroin that resulted in Scolaro’s death and did so within a prohibited proximity of a school.” Id. at 619. In making this determination, we concluded that “[biased on all the testimony before it, the jury could have rationally concluded that Scolaro died as a result of the ingestion of multiple narcotics, including heroin distributed to him by Ford.” Id. at 621 (emphasis added).

Ford petitioned for writ of certiorari. On February 24, 2014, the Supreme Court granted certiorari, vacated our judgment, and remanded for reconsideration in light of Burrage v. United States, — U.S. -, 134 S.Ct. 881, 187 L.Ed.2d 715 (2014). In Burrage, the Supreme Court “h[e]ld that, at least where use of the drug distributed by the defendant is not an independently sufficient cause of .the victim’s death or serious bodily injury, a defendant cannot be liable under the penalty enhancement provision of 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(C) unless such use is a but-for cause of the death or injury.” Id. at 892.

*954 Having reconsidered Ford’s appeal as the Supreme Court directed, we again affirm Ford’s conviction on Count 2 but reverse his conviction on Count 1 for the government’s failure to prove that the drug that Ford distributed to Scolaro was a “but-for” cause of his death. We reinstate all but Part II.A. of our prior opinion concerning whether the heroin that Ford distributed to Scolaro resulted in his death, as it is the only section that Bur-rage affects. See Ford, 717 F.3d at 619—21. Because the jury unanimously found that the distribution of heroin took place within 1,000 feet of the real property comprising a school, see 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and 860(a), we direct the district court to enter judgment on the lesser included offense of distribution of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a protected location. We remand for resentencing consistent witji this opinion.

I. Discussion

As the Supreme Court explained in Bur-rage, to sustain a guilty verdict on Count 1, the government had to prove “two principal elements: (i) knowing or intentional distribution of heroin, § 841(a)(1), 1 and (ii) death caused by (‘resulting from’) the use of that drug, § 841(b)(1)(C).” 134 S.Ct. at 887.

In our first consideration of Ford’s appeal of his conviction on Count 1, we acknowledged that “[t]he more difficult element for the government to prove was that Scolaro’s death resulted from the heroin that Ford distributed.” Ford, 717 F.3d at 619. In analyzing this element, our primary focus was whether evidence existed “that Scolaro actually injected the heroin or otherwise put it into his body.” Id. at 620. We ultimately determined that the government proved this element, explaining:

[T]he narcotic originally alleged to have been ingested — heroin—was absent in its original form from the decedent’s system. A heroin by-product, morphine, was present, but tests regarding whether that morphine resulted from the break down of heroin were inconclusive. Based on all the testimony before it, the jury could have rationally concluded that Scolaro died as a result of the ingestion of multiple narcotics, including heroin distributed to him by Ford.

Id. at 621 (emphasis added).

But the Supreme Court instructed in Burrage that “where use of the drug distributed by the defendant is not an independently sufficient cause of the victim’s death or serious bodily injury, a defendant cannot be liable under the penalty enhancement provision of 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(C) unless such use is a but-for cause of the death or injury.” 134 S.Ct. at 892. In Burrage, “[t]wo medical experts testified at trial regarding the cause of [the victim’s] death.” Id. at 885. One of the experts opined that “heroin “was a contributing factor’ in [the victim’s] death,” meaning that “[t]he heroin ... contributed to an overall effect that caused [the victim] to stop breathing.” Id. at 885-86. The other expert “described the cause of death as ‘mixed drug intoxication’ with heroin, oxycodone, alprazolam, and clonazepam all playing a ‘contributing’ role.” Id. at 886. This expert “could not say whether [the victim] would have lived had he not taken the heroin, but observed that [the victim’s] death would have been ‘[v]ery less likely.’ ” Id.

The Court held that the mandatory-minimum provision does not apply “when use of a covered drug supplied by the defen *955 dant contributes to, but is not a but-for cause of, the victim’s death or injury.” Id. at 885. The Court declined to adopt the government’s permissive interpretation of “results from” to mean that “use of a drug distributed by the defendant need not be a but-for cause of death, nor even independently sufficient to cause death, so long as it contributes to an aggregate force (such as mixed-drug intoxication) that is itself a but-for cause of death.” Id. at 890.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
750 F.3d 952, 2014 WL 1717917, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 8289, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-samuel-ford-ca8-2014.