United States v. Gary William Minore, AKA Skip, United States of America v. Arthur Torsone, United States of America v. Prommateta Chinawat
Opinion
Opinion
Fisher, J.
In this appeal, we consider the significance of Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348 , 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), in a realm other than sentencing. Gary W. Minore challenges the validity of his conviction because the district court did not advise him during the plea colloquy that the government would be required to prove the amount of marijuana involved in the offense to the jury beyond a reason-, able doubt. Applying Apprendi in the context of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11(c)(1), we hold that before accepting a guilty plea, the district court must advise the defendant that the government would have to prove to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt any quantity of drugs that would expose the defendant to a higher statutory maximum sentence. Applying plain error review to the district court’s failure to so advise Minore, we conclude the error did not seriously affect the fairness, integrity or public reputation of the judicial proceedings, and we thus affirm Minore’s conviction. We also affirm the sentence of Minore’s co-defendant, Prommetata Chinawat, in spite of a separate Apprendi error relating to Chinawat’s sentencing.