United States v. BarrazaMartinez , 2003 CAAF LEXIS 299 ( 2003 )


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  •                         UNITED STATES, Appellee
    v.
    Enrique BARRAZAMARTINEZ, Lance Corporal
    U.S. Marine Corps, Appellant
    No. 02-0865
    Crim. App. No. 200101575
    United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces
    Argued February 5, 2003
    Decided March 26, 2003
    GIERKE, J., delivered the judgment of the Court, in which
    CRAWFORD, C.J., joined. EFFRON, J., filed a separate opinion
    concurring in the result. BAKER, J., filed a separate dissenting
    opinion, in which ERDMANN, J., joined.
    Counsel
    For Appellant: Lieutenant Michael J. Navarre, JAGC, USNR
    (argued); Lieutenant Glenn Gerding, JAGC, USNR (on brief).
    For Appellee: Lieutenant Lori McCurdy, JAGC, USNR (argued);
    Colonel R. M. Favors (on brief).
    Military Judge:    S. A. Folsom
    This opinion is subject to editorial correction before final publication.
    United States v. BarrazaMartinez, No. 02-0865/MC
    Judge GIERKE delivered the judgment of the Court.
    A military judge sitting as a general court-martial
    convicted Appellant, pursuant to his pleas, of conspiracy to
    wrongfully import marijuana, and wrongfully importing marijuana,
    in violation of Articles 81 and 112a, Uniform Code of Military
    Justice [hereinafter UCMJ], 
    10 U.S.C. §§ 881
    , 912a (2002),
    respectively.     A panel of officers sentenced Appellant to a
    dishonorable discharge, confinement for 11 years, forfeiture of
    all pay and allowances, and reduction to the lowest enlisted
    grade.   In accordance with a pretrial agreement, the convening
    authority suspended all confinement in excess of 78 months but
    otherwise approved the sentence.          The Court of Criminal Appeals
    affirmed the findings and sentence in an unpublished opinion.
    This Court granted review of the following issues:
    I
    WHETHER TRIAL COUNSEL COMMITTED PLAIN ERROR WHEN HE REFERRED
    TO AMERICA’S “WAR ON DRUGS” AND CALLED APPELLANT A “TRAITOR”
    DURING HIS PRESENTENCING ARGUMENT BEFORE MEMBERS.
    II
    WHETHER APPELLANT’S SENTENCE TO ELEVEN YEARS’ CONFINEMENT
    AND A DISHONORABLE DISCHARGE IS HIGHLY DISPARATE COMPARED TO
    HIS ALLEGED CO-CONSPIRATOR’S SENTENCE OF FOUR YEARS’
    CONFINEMENT AND A BAD-CONDUCT DISCHARGE.
    For the reasons set out below, we affirm.
    I. Factual Background
    At the time of the offenses, Appellant was stationed at
    Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California.         In early February
    2000, Appellant’s cousin introduced him to a civilian named Beto.
    Beto offered Appellant $1,500 to go to Mexico and bring back a
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    United States v. BarrazaMartinez, No. 02-0865/MC
    pickup truck loaded with marijuana.         Appellant agreed, seeing an
    opportunity to earn some money for his parents and sister.
    On February 11, 2000, Beto notified Appellant that the
    truckload of marijuana was ready.         Beto told Appellant that it
    would be better if Appellant had someone with him on the trip
    from Mexico to the United States.         Appellant asked Lance Corporal
    (LCpl) Martinezgarcia to accompany him.            According to Appellant,
    LCpl Martinezgarcia did not know the purpose of the trip.
    On the same day, Appellant, Beto and LCpl Martinezgarcia
    drove to Tijuana, Mexico, where Beto delivered a Volkswagen
    pickup truck to Appellant.       Appellant knew that marijuana was
    hidden in the truck, but he did not know its quantity or exact
    location in the truck.      When Appellant crossed the border,
    customs agents detained him and LCpl Martinezgarcia, and they
    discovered 99 pounds∗ of marijuana concealed in the truck’s right
    rear fender panel.
    During his sentencing argument, the trial counsel argued:
    We in America are engaged in a war on drugs. You have heard
    from the President. You heard from the agents, and customs,
    that borders are being flooded. . . .
    The drug cartels in Mexico are bringing drugs in this
    country and polluting our population. They’re making money
    off our weak individuals. They do it because people like
    [Appellant] carry the drugs across the border.
    Now as warriors you know you can always fight the battle and
    fight the enemy on the battlefield. But true tacticians
    know you win the war by knocking out the logistics.
    ∗
    Although Appellant was charged with importing 99 pounds of
    marijuana and admitted importing 99 pounds during the plea
    inquiry, a U.S. Customs Service special agent testified that the
    99 pounds included the tape and wrapping, and that the actual
    weight of the marijuana was approximately 85 pounds.
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    United States v. BarrazaMartinez, No. 02-0865/MC
    Trial counsel referred to the maximum confinement authorized for
    Appellant’s offenses (30 years), and he argued as follows:
    The reason thirty years is authorized is because it’s worth
    a lot. It’s worth a lot of punishment because it is the
    type of activity we need to deter. Not just one individual
    but anyone who would think about doing it, tarnishing the
    Marine Corps’ image of bringing drugs across this border.
    Almost a traitor to our country in that he’s bringing in
    drugs when we are trying, as a nation, to stop them from
    coming in.
    Trial counsel concluded his argument by asking the court members
    to impose confinement for 15 years.         Appellant’s defense counsel
    did not object to any of the trial counsel’s sentencing argument.
    LCpl Martinezgarcia, Appellant’s co-conspirator, was charged
    with conspiring with the Appellant, importing and possessing
    marijuana, and making a false official statement about his
    involvement with Appellant, in violation of Articles 81 and 112a,
    and Article 107, UCMJ, 
    10 U.S.C. § 907
     (2002).        His case
    initially was referred to trial jointly with Appellant’s, but the
    cases were later severed.       LCpl Martinezgarcia pleaded not
    guilty, but he was convicted and sentenced to a bad-conduct
    discharge, confinement for four years, total forfeitures, and
    reduction to the lowest enlisted grade.
    II. Discussion: Improper Argument (Issue I)
    A.   Reference to War on Drugs
    Appellant asserts that it was plain error for the trial
    counsel to introduce the Commmander-in-Chief’s war on drugs into
    the deliberation room.      The Government argues that it was not
    plain error to refer to the war on drugs, that America’s war on
    drugs is common knowledge, and that mentioning it does not bring
    command sentencing policy into the deliberation room.
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    United States v. BarrazaMartinez, No. 02-0865/MC
    In light of the defense counsel’s failure to object, we
    review the trial counsel’s argument for plain error.             See United
    States v. Powell, 
    49 M.J. 460
     (C.A.A.F. 1998); United States v.
    Kropf, 
    39 M.J. 107
    , 108-09 (C.M.A. 1994).             Appellant has the
    burden of persuading this Court that there was plain error.
    Powell, 49 M.J. at 464.
    Regarding sentencing arguments, Rule for Courts-Martial
    1001(g) provides:
    Trial counsel may not in argument purport to speak for
    the convening authority or any higher authority, or
    refer to the views of such authorities or any policy
    directive relative to punishment or to any punishment
    or quantum of punishment greater than that court-
    martial may adjudge.
    Reference to departmental or command policies can create the
    appearance of unlawful command influence.             See United States v.
    Grady, 
    15 M.J. 275
    , 276 (C.M.A. 1983).             Reference to such
    policies “is an area in which trial counsel are well advised to
    tread lightly.”     Kropf, 39 M.J. at 109.          On the other hand, it is
    proper for a trial counsel to comment on “contemporary history or
    matters of common knowledge within the community.”             Id. at 108.
    With respect to trial counsel’s reference to the war on
    drugs in this case, we agree with the Government that it is a
    matter of common knowledge.       Furthermore, the trial counsel made
    no reference to either the Commander-in-Chief’s or any other
    commander’s expectations regarding Appellant’s punishment.             Thus,
    with respect to this aspect of the trial counsel’s argument, we
    hold that there was no plain error.
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    United States v. BarrazaMartinez, No. 02-0865/MC
    B. Appellant as “Almost a Traitor”
    A trial counsel is charged with being a zealous advocate for
    the Government.     United States v. Nelson, 
    1 M.J. 235
    , 238 (C.M.A.
    1975).    During sentencing arguments, “the trial counsel is at
    liberty to strike hard, but not foul, blows.”           United States v.
    Baer, 
    53 M.J. 235
    , 237 (C.A.A.F. 2000).            Trial counsel may not,
    however, “seek unduly to inflame the passions or prejudices of
    the court members.”      United States v. Clifton, 
    15 M.J. 26
    , 30
    (C.M.A. 1983).
    Trial counsel’s reference to Appellant as “almost a traitor”
    gives us pause.     The term “traitor” is particularly odious,
    particularly in the military community.            On the other hand, trial
    counsel used the term only once, and he qualified it with the
    word “almost.”     The term is defined as: “1. One who betrays
    another’s trust or is false to an obligation or duty; 2. One who
    commits treason.”     MERRIAM-WEBSTER’S COLLEGIATE DICTIONARY 1252
    (10th ed. 1993).    Treason is defined as “the betrayal of a trust;
    treachery.”    
    Id. at 1257-58
    .      It was fair comment on the evidence
    for trial counsel to argue that Appellant had betrayed the trust
    placed in him as a member of the United States Marine Corps.
    Defense counsel did not consider the argument sufficiently
    offensive to warrant an objection.         See Nelson, 1 M.J. at 238
    n.6.    While we do not condone the trial counsel’s use of this
    potentially inflammatory term, we hold that Appellant has not
    carried his burden of persuading this Court that the sentencing
    argument characterizing him as “almost a traitor” was plain
    error.
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    United States v. BarrazaMartinez, No. 02-0865/MC
    III. Discussion: Highly Disparate Sentences (Issue II)
    In United States v. Lacy, 
    50 M.J. 286
    , 288 (C.A.A.F. 1999),
    this Court set out a three-part test for resolving claims of
    disparate treatment.      When reviewing a decision of a Court of
    Criminal Appeals, we limit our review to three questions of law:
    (1) whether the cases are “closely related”; . . . (2)
    whether the cases resulted in ‘highly disparate’
    sentences; and (3) if the requested relief is not
    granted [by the court below] in a closely related case
    involving a highly disparate sentence, whether there is
    a rational basis for the differences between or among
    the cases.
    Our standard of review is “whether a Court of Criminal Appeals
    abused its discretion or caused a miscarriage of justice in
    carrying out its highly discretionary ‘sentence appropriateness’
    role.”   United States v. Durant, 
    55 M.J. 258
    , 260 (C.A.A.F.
    2001).
    Appellant asserts that the court below erred by not granting
    him sentence relief in light of the significantly less severe
    sentence of his co-conspirator, LCpl Martinezgarcia.      The
    Government does not dispute that the two cases are closely
    related and that the sentences are highly disparate.      The
    Government argues, however, that the court below did not abuse
    its discretion by affirming Appellant’s sentence because there
    was a rational basis for the disparity between Appellant’s
    sentence and that of his co-conspirator.
    The court below concluded that the two cases are closely
    related and that the sentences are highly disparate, but it
    concluded that the Government had carried its burden of showing a
    rational basis for Appellant’s more severe sentence.      The lower
    court reasoned as follows:
    7
    United States v. BarrazaMartinez, No. 02-0865/MC
    Appellant was the one who entered into a criminal
    conspiracy, agreed to drive the truck containing
    approximately 99 pounds of concealed marijuana for
    resale, and then drove it from Mexico into the United
    States in order to earn $1500. It was he who chose to
    involve Martinezgarcia in this criminal enterprise
    because the mastermind of the operation, a drug
    wholesaler known only as “Beto,” suggested that the
    undertaking would likely be more successful if someone
    else was in the pickup truck as they crossed into the
    United States . . . . He admitted that, but for his
    invitation to take part, Martinezgarcia would never
    have been in the truck . . . . Indeed, according to
    Appellant, Martinezgarcia was unaware of the fact that
    there was any marijuana in the truck . . . . We
    conclude, therefore, that there are rational and cogent
    reasons for the apparent disparity in the sentences
    imposed on Appellant and his co-actor.
    We agree with the analysis of the court below.   Accordingly,
    we hold that the court below did not abuse its discretion or
    cause a miscarriage of justice by affirming Appellant’s sentence.
    IV. Decision
    The decision of the United States Navy-Marine Corps Court of
    Criminal Appeals is affirmed.
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    United States v. BarrazaMartinez, No. 02-0865/MC
    Effron, Judge (concurring in the result):
    Appellant was represented in this case by both civilian and
    military defense counsel.   Appellant’s counsel did not object to
    trial counsel’s closing argument.   Absent such an objection, in
    a case that does not involve an allegation of ineffective
    assistance of counsel, the burden is on Appellant to demonstrate
    plain error under United States v. Powell, 
    49 M.J. 460
     (C.A.A.F.
    1998).   Under Powell, Appellant must demonstrate that: (1) there
    was an error; (2) the error was plain or obvious; and (3) the
    error materially prejudiced a substantial right.   
    Id. at 463-65
    .
    Both the lead opinion and the dissenting opinion set forth
    reasonable interpretations of trial counsel’s closing argument.
    In that context, Appellant has not met his burden of
    demonstrating under the second prong of Powell that any error
    was so obvious that the military judge should have intervened in
    the absence of objection by defense counsel.
    United States v. BarrazaMartinez, No. 02-0865/MC
    BAKER, Judge, with whom ERDMANN, Judge, joins
    (dissenting):
    Although I agree with the lead opinion’s legal
    framework, I respectfully dissent from its application of
    that framework to these facts.
    The lead opinion concludes that Appellant has not
    carried his burden of persuading this court that trial
    counsel’s sentencing argument was plain error.       In reaching
    this conclusion the lead opinion relies on three arguments.
    First, the war on drugs is common knowledge.       Second, trial
    counsel only referred to Appellant as a traitor once, and
    when he did so the term was qualified by the word “almost.”
    Third, “treason” is defined, inter alia, as “the betrayal
    of a trust.”    _ M.J. (6)     Thus, trial counsel’s reference
    to Appellant as “almost a traitor” was “fair comment on the
    evidence” because “Appellant had betrayed the trust placed
    in him as a member of the United States Marine Corps.”       
    Id.
    In essence, the lead opinion argues, trial counsel used the
    word traitor in its colloquial and descriptive sense, and
    not in its constitutional sense to describe someone who
    commits treason, like Benedict Arnold.
    I disagree.    I think the better view is that trial
    counsel was appealing to the members’ sense of duty and
    patriotism as Marines by suggesting that Appellant’s
    United States v. BarrazaMartinez, No. 02-0865/MC
    offenses were the equivalent of treason as used in the
    constitutional sense.      To a panel of members sworn to
    uphold and defend the Constitution, such suggestion, in my
    view, is inflammatory and runs undue risk of drawing the
    members unfairly away from the evidence at hand.
    This is clear from the context of trial counsel’s full
    argument:
    Now as warriors you know you can always fight the
    battle and fight the enemy on the battlefield. But
    true tacticians know you win the war by knocking out
    the logistics. . . . Now Marines stand for an awful
    lot of things. We stand for what is right in this
    country. We defend our borders. We have honor and
    courage. We don’t stand for perfect drug courier and
    we shouldn’t be the type of people that drug couriers
    should recruit. . . . The reason thirty years is
    authorized is because it’s worth a lot. . . . [The
    accused is] [a]lmost a traitor to our country in that
    he’s bringing in drugs when we are trying, as a
    nation, to stop them from coming in. We employ
    thousands of dollars, millions of dollars in doing
    that, employing the military to stop the drugs. . . .
    [H]e tarnished our image. He committed the serious
    offense against this nation.
    First, trial counsel’s reference to Appellant as
    “almost a traitor” comes in the context of war.         The “war
    on drugs” is indeed a matter of common knowledge and a
    colloquialism for efforts to address the importation and
    use of drugs in the United States.         However, counsel did
    not limit his argument to the policy metaphor.         Rather, he
    appealed to the members as warriors to do their duty in
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    United States v. BarrazaMartinez, No. 02-0865/MC
    this war.    That duty, I infer in the context of a
    sentencing argument, was to levy harsh punishment.
    Second, in his reference to Appellant as “almost a
    traitor,” trial counsel stated, “[Appellant] committed the
    serious offense against this nation.”          This is the language
    of treason as understood in the Constitution as a crime
    against the nation.      (“Treason against the United States
    shall consist only in levying War against them, or in
    adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.”
    US Const. art. III, § 3 (emphasis added)).          Nor is this
    reference a momentary metaphor, it is a central theme in
    trial counsel’s closing argument covering three pages in
    the record.
    Finally, if one adopts the lead opinion’s view that
    trial counsel’s argument was fair comment on the evidence
    because Appellant betrayed a trust, then it is fair comment
    in any case in which a member of the armed forces commits a
    common crime.     Any accused within the military justice
    system would become a traitor for acts of “treason” against
    “trust placed in [him/her] as a member of the United States
    [Armed Forces].”     _ M.J. (6).       This does not strike me as
    an analytic formula suited to upholding a fair and
    impartial system of military justice.          In a military
    courtroom, the labeling of an accused as a “traitor” is
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    United States v. BarrazaMartinez, No. 02-0865/MC
    particularly inflammatory.       Therefore, until this Court
    overrules United States v. Baer, 
    53 M.J. 235
     (C.A.A.F.
    2000), and United States v. Clifton, 
    15 M.J. 26
     (C.M.A.
    1983), I would consider such language in the context of a
    drug trial outside the bounds of fair comment.
    Appellant betrayed the trust of the Marine Corps and
    the public the Marine Corps serves; but Appellant was not
    on trial for treason against the nation in the war on
    drugs.   Rather, he was on trial for importing drugs into
    the United States in the context of a United States effort
    to stem the tide of drugs referred to as a “war on drugs.”
    We should be confident he was sentenced for the crime for
    which he was charged and convicted.
    4
    

Document Info

Docket Number: 02-0865-MC

Citation Numbers: 58 M.J. 173, 2003 CAAF LEXIS 299, 2003 WL 1561938

Judges: Effron, Baker, Gierke

Filed Date: 3/26/2003

Precedential Status: Precedential

Modified Date: 11/9/2024