United States v. George Jefferson

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 13-50647 Plaintiff-Appellee, D.C. No. v. 3:13-cr-01378-LAB-

GEORGE JEFFERSON,

Defendant-Appellant. OPINION

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of California Larry A. Burns, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted January 8, 2015—Pasadena, California

Filed June 26, 2015

Before: Alex Kozinski, Kim McLane Wardlaw, and William A. Fletcher, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Wardlaw; Concurrence by Judge W. Fletcher SUMMARY*

Criminal Law

Affirming a sentence for knowingly and intentionally importing a controlled substance into the United States in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 952 and 960, the panel rejected the defendant’s argument that recent Supreme Court authority requires the government to prove that the defendant knew the specific type and quantity of the drugs he imported in order to trigger the ten-year mandatory minimum under 21 U.S.C. § 960(b)(1)(H).

Judge W. Fletcher concurred because this court is bound by United States v. Carranza, 289 F.3d 634 (9th Cir.…

concurring:

I concur in Judge Wardlaw’s careful opinion, which faithfully applies our circuit’s law regarding the mens rea required to sentence a defendant convicted of illegally importing drugs. But I do so only because we are bound by United States v. Carranza, 289 F.3d 634 (9th Cir.2002). Under the rule of Carranza and its predecessors, a defendant who reasonably believes that he is importing a relatively small quantity of marijuana into the country must be sentenced to the ten-year mandatory minimum prison term that applies to a defendant who knowingly imports the same quantity of methamphetamine. I do not believe that Congress intended this result. I write to explain why, in my view, Carranza should be overruled.

I

Jefferson was convicted of violating 21 U.S.C. §§ 952 and 960, which together criminalize the importation of narcotic drugs into the United States. Section 960, under which Jefferson’s penalty was determined, is an omnibus narcotics statute that prescribes penalties for a variety of trafficking crimes. Section 960(a) sets out “[ujnlawful acts.” 21 U.S.C. § 960 (a). As relevant here, it provides that “[a]ny person who ... knowingly or intentionally imports ... a…

Opinion by Judge WARDLAW; Concurrence by Judge W. FLETCHER.

OPINION

George Jefferson appeals his ten-year mandatory minimum sentence for knowingly and intentionally importing a controlled substance into the United States in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 952 and 960. We reject Jefferson’s argument that recent Supreme Court authority requires the government to prove that the defendant knew the specific type and quantity of the drugs he imported in order to trigger the ten-year mandatory minimum under 21 U.S.C. § 960 (b)(1)(H). Accordingly, we affirm.

I.

Jefferson entered a guilty plea to one count of knowingly and intentionally importing 4.65 kilograms of a mixture containing methamphetamine into the United States. Jefferson claims that, at the time he crossed the border, he thought the substance he was transporting was marijuana, *1015 not methamphetaraine, and that he did not know how much of the illegal substance was in his truck. At sentencing he contended, among other things, 1 that under the Supreme Court’s decisions in Alleyne v. United States, — U.S. -, 133 S.Ct. 2151 , 186 L.Ed.2d 314 (2013) and Flores-Figueroa v. United States, 556 U.S. 646 , 129 S.Ct. 1886 , 173 L.Ed.2d…