concluding that the judgment in Powell rested on the overlap in the views of “four members of the Court” who held that Powell’s acts of public drunkenness “were punishable without question” and the view of Justice White that Powell’s acts “were punishable so long as the acts had not been proved to be the product of an established irresistible compulsion”
How later courts described this case
- concluding that the judgment in Powell rested on the overlap in the views of “four members of the Court” who held that Powell’s acts of public drunkenness “were punishable without question” and the view of Justice White that Powell’s acts “were punishable so long as the acts had not been proved to be the product of an established irresistible compulsion”
- noting that "there is definitely no Supreme Court holding" of addiction as a defense
- rejecting the assertion that "punishment of addict possessors is neither a reasonable nor a necessary means to achieve [the] goal" of reconciling the need to eliminate drug traffic with the need to rehabilitate addicts
- characterizing such an interpretation as "an amplification and extrapolation of the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Eighth Amendment advanced in the admittedly confused and divergent opinions in Robinson v. California and Powell v. Texas "
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
BAZELON, Chief Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part):
The views on which I would resolve the issues in this case are set forth in my separate opinions in United States v. Brawner, 153 U.S.App.D.C. 1 , 471 F.2d 969, at 1022-1034 (1972) (en banc) and United States v. Alexander & Murdock, 152 U.S.App.D.C. 371 , 471 F.2d 923, at 948-951 (1972). On the issue of guilt or innocence, Judge Wright’s views are closest to my own. I cannot, however, accept his view that the addiction/responsibility defense should be limited to the offense of possession. I would also permit a jury to consider addiction as a defense to a charge of, for example, armed robbery or trafficking in drugs, to determine whether the defendant was under such duress or compulsion, because of his addiction, that he was unable to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law.
Although I disagree with the Court’s decision on the underlying responsibility issue, given that decision, the views on NARA and on sentencing expressed in Part V of Judge Leventhal’s opinion do seem useful. For the purpose of decision, therefore, I join in Part V of that opinion.