# United States v. Watts

> Supreme Court of the United States · January 6, 1997 · 519 U.S. 148

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9433398

## Case

- **Full name:** United States v. Watts
- **Court:** Supreme Court of the United States
- **Decided:** January 6, 1997
- **Citations:** 519 U.S. 148; 117 S. Ct. 633; 136 L. Ed. 2d 554; 1997 U.S. LEXIS 1
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Scalia
- **Judges:** Scalia, Breyer, Stevens, Kennedy
- **Cited by:** 1,445 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- **Yellow flag:** Reported overruled implicitly by Nelson v. Colorado, 137 S. Ct. 1249 (2017) — not on the Supreme Court's list.
- Negative treatments: 3
- Distinguished by: 1
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9433398

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- holding—where the district court found, notwithstanding the jury’s verdict to the contrary, that the defendant used a firearm and used that finding to increase the guidelines range sentence—that “a jury’s verdict of acquittal does not prevent the sentencing court from consider…
- finding “[t]he 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 to ...” “longstanding procedural requirements enshrined in our constitutional jurisprudence”
- holding that sentence enhancements are not construed as additional punishment for the previous crime of which the defendant was not convicted; rather, they act to increase a sentence “because of the manner in which [the defendant] committed the crime of conviction”
- holding that establishing that known drug dealer resided in motel was acquittal on a 18 U.S.C. § 924 (c) offense did not prevent the sufficient to show probable cause to search motel room for sentencing court from considering under USSG § 2D1.1 drug paraphernalia
- holding that defendant’s acquittal of using a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime by a jury did not preclude sentencing court from determining that firearm was possessed in furtherance of possession of cocaine base with intent to distribute

## Opinion text

*158 Justice Scalia,
concurring.
I do not agree with the assertion in Justice Breyer’s concurrence that there is no obstacle to the Sentencing Commission’s reversing today’s outcome by mandating disregard of the information we today hold it proper to consider. Title 28 U. S. C. § 994 (b)(1) requires the Guidelines to be “consistent with all pertinent provisions of title 18, United States Code.” In turn, 18 U. S. C. § 3661 provides that “[n]o limitation shall be placed on the information concerning the background, character, and conduct of a person convicted of an offense which a court of the United States may receive and consider for the purpose of imposing an appropriate sentence.” In my view, neither the Commission nor the courts have authority to decree that information which would otherwise justify enhancement of sentence or upward departure from the Guidelines may not be considered for that purpose (or may be considered only after passing some higher standard of probative worth than the Constitution and law's require) if it pertains to acquitted conduct. If the Commission believes that the rules of evidence and proof established by the Constitution and laws are inadequate, it may of course recommend changes to the Congress, cf. 28 U. S. C. § 994 (w).

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9433398. Public record. Not legal advice.