Thursday, June 21, 2007

Life Sentence Affirmed in Drug Case

U.S. v. Balderama-Iribe, --- F.3d ----, 2007 WL 1748507(10th Cir. June 19, 2007)

Government filed proper 21 U.S.C. § 851(a)(1) notice and district court did not commit plain error in sentence Defendant to mandatory life in prison after jury convicted him of possessing with intent over 50 gr. of meth (he had two prior drug felony convictions). The prosecutor's single, brief misstatement that Defendant faced a 20-year minimum mandatory made during the pretrial hearing was not enough to undo the clear notice provided by the earlier § 851 information.