In U.S. v. Poyato, No. 05-13135 (July 10, 2006), the Court held that a jury’s acquittal on the court of being a felon in possession of a firearm did not affect a sentencing court determination whether a defendant is eligible for a safety valve sentence reduction below the mandatory minimum.
The defendant’s drug trafficking convictions subjected him to a minimum mandatory sentence of 36 months. The defendant would have been eligible for a safety valve sentence reduction below this minimum if, inter alia, he did not possess a firearm in connection with the offense. The district court stated that if it were the fact-finder, it would find that the defendant failed to satisfy this condition because it concluded by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant possessed a firearm in connection with his drug trafficking. However, the court felt precluded, post-Booker, from making this finding because the jury had acquitted the defendant of the firearm count.
Reversing, the Court stated that the safety valve statute instructs the district court to make the relevant findings, and Booker did not affect this. Further, the safety valve involves sentencing below a minimum, not sentencing above a maximum, and therefore did not trigger the Apprendi principle. Finally, the safety valve statute instruction to sentence pursuant to the Guidelines did not trigger a maximum sentence, but an advisory sentence.
