United States v. Vernon Watts (519 U.S. 148)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided January 6, 1997 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 519 U.S. 148 · 117 S. Ct. 633
- Decided
- January 6, 1997
- Term
- October Term 1996
- Vote
- 7–2
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Per Curiam. In these two cases, two panels of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that sentencing courts could not consider conduct of the defendants underlying charges of which they had been acquitted. United States v. Watts, 67 F. 3d 790 (CA9 1995) (Watts); United States v. Putra, 78 F. 3d 1386 (CA9 1996) (Putra). Every other Court of Appeals has held that a sentencing court may do so, if the Government establishes that conduct by a preponderance of the evidence. The Government filed a single petition for cer-tiorari seeking review of both cases, pursuant to this Court’s Rule 12.4, to resolve this split. Because the panels’ holdings conflict with the clear implications of 18 U. S. C. §3661, the Sentencing Guidelines, and this Court’s decisions, particularly Witte v. United States, 515 U. S. 389 (1995), we grant the petition and reverse in both cases. In Watts, police discovered cocaine base in a kitchen cabinet and two loaded guns and ammunition hidden in a bedroom closet of Watts’ house. A jury convicted Watts of possessing cocaine base with intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U. S. C. § 841(a)(1), but acquitted him of using a firearm in relation to a drug offense, in violation of 18 U. S. C. § 924(c). Despite Watts’ acquittal on the firearms count, the District Court found by a preponderance of the evidence that Watts had possessed the guns in connection…
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