* This message forwarded from private area of Rich Woods
  * Original message dated 06 Jan 97  20:37:21, from Jury Rights Project 
 
 Apparently-to: rich.woods@245.genesplicer.org
Date: Mon, 6 Jan 1997 21:37:21 -0700 (MST)
From: Jury Rights Project 
Posted at 8:11 a.m. PST Monday, January 6, 1997 
 Court allows longer sentences for some
 WASHINGTON (AP) -- Judges may lengthen the sentences of convicted
 defendants based on charges of which they were acquitted, the Supreme
Court ruled today.
 By a 7-2 vote in cases from California and Hawaii, the justices
reinstated the sentences of two drug dealers.
 In an unsigned decision, the nation's highest court said that neither
federal law nor the Constitution's protection against double jeopardy
 bars judges from considering conduct of which defendants were acquitted.
 Although both cases involved federal prosecutions, the court's
discussion of constitutional law would apply to state prosecutions as well.
 The justices noted that an acquittal ``does not prove that the
defendant is innocent; it merely proves the existence of a reasonable
doubt as to his guilt.''
 ``We therefore hold that a jury's verdict of acquittal does not prevent
the sentencing court from considering conduct underlying the acquitted
charge, so long as that conduct has been proved by a preponderance of the 
evidence,'' today's decision said.
 In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said the decision brings about a
``perverse result.''
 ``The notion that a charge that cannot be sustained by proof beyond a
reasonable doubt may give rise to the same punishment as if it had been
 so proved is repugnant,'' he said.
 Justice Anthony M. Kennedy also dissented, saying in a separate opinion
that the court should have allowed lawyers in the case to submit more
briefs and argue in person before issuing a decision.
 Sentencing courts generally are free to take into account defendants'
conduct other than that for which they were convicted, what courts called
``uncharged conduct.''
 But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last year that
sentencing judges ``cannot reconsider facts that the jury necessarily 
rejected by its acquittal of the defendant on another count.''
 Other federal appeals courts had reached the opposite conclusion, but
the 9th Circuit court's ruling would have bound federal judges in nine states
-- California, Hawaii, Alaska, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and
Washington.
 Justice Department lawyers had argued that the 9th Circuit court failed
to identify ``any source of authority for its judicial limitation.''
 In the California case, Vernon Watts was convicted in Sacramento of
possessing cocaine base with the intent of distributing it. He was acquitted 
of
charges that he used or carried a gun during a drug-trafficking offense.
 When sentencing Watts to 21 years and 10 months in prison, a federal
judge took the gun possession into consideration -- resulting in a longer 
prison
term.
 In the Hawaii case, Cheryl Putra was convicted in Honolulu of aiding
and abetting in the possession of one ounce of cocaine with intent
to distribute it.  She was acquitted of conspiracy and of aiding and 
abetting the possession of five ounces of cocaine with intent to distribute 
it.
 A federal judge sentenced her to two years and three months in prison
after factoring in the charges on which she had been found not guilty.
 In both cases, the 9th Circuit court upheld the convictions but threw
out the sentences. Today's decision reversed the appeals court's ruling.
 The case is U.S. vs. Watts, 95-1906.
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