United States v. Howard Eugene Leasure

Howard Eugene Leasure appeals his sentence and conviction for establishing a narcotics manufacturing laboratory in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 856 (a)(2). Principally at issue is whether the government bears the burden of proving at sentencing that a convicted narcotics laboratory operator actually participated in the underlying drug offense under U.S.S.G. § 2D1.8. Leasure contends that imposing that burden upon the defendant is constitutionally defective as violative of his Fourteenth Amendment right to due process, his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination, and finally, his rights under the Grand Jury clause of the Fifth Amendment because participation, a fact that increases his sentence, was not charged in the indictment. Leasure also asserts (i) the invalidity of the search warrant for his premises as unsupported by probable cause; (ii) ineffective assistance of counsel in the pre-trial proceedings; (iii) insufficiency of the evidence presented at trial; (iv) error by the district court in failing to employ a heightened standard of proof to determine whether he participated in the underlying offense; and (v) error in the district court’s drug quantity…