STATE OF OREGON, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. BRIAN G. HUBBELL, Defendant-Appellant.
18CR43198; A170143
Oregon Court of Appeals
September 29, 2021
314 Or App 844, 500 P3d 728
James, J.
Argued and submitted November 12, 2020; conviction for delivery of a controlled substance reversed and remanded for entry of a conviction for attempted delivery of a controlled substance, remanded for resentencing, otherwise affirmed September 29, 2021
STATE OF OREGON, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. BRIAN G. HUBBELL, Defendant-Appellant.
Washington County Circuit Court 18CR43198; A170143
500 P3d 728
Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction for delivery of a controlled substance that was based on the theory that his possession of a large amount of fentanyl, some of which was individually packaged, was sufficient to prove a “Boyd delivery.” See State v. Boyd, 92 Or App 51, 756 P2d 1276, rev den, 307 Or 77 (1988) (holding that “attempted transfer” for purposes of the definition of “delivery” in
Held: Boyd’s leap—defining the word “attempted” within a substantive statute to be the inchoate crime of attempt—was not just wrong but plainly wrong. After employing the usual methodology for construing statutes (something that did not happen in Boyd), it was readily apparent that the legislature meant for the word “attempted” in
Conviction for delivery of a controlled substance reversed and remanded for entry of a conviction for attempted delivery of a controlled substance; remanded for resentencing; otherwise affirmed.
Theodore E. Sims, Judge.
Anne Fujita Munsey, Deputy Public Defender, argued the cause for appellant. Also on the briefs was Ernest G. Lannet, Chief Defender, Criminal Appellate Section, Office of Public Defense Services.
Greg Rios, Assistant Attorney General, argued the cause for respondent. Also on the briefs were Ellen F. Rosenblum, Attorney General, and Benjamin Gutman, Solicitor General.
Before Lagesen, Presiding Judge, and James, Judge, and Kamins, Judge.
JAMES, J.
Conviction for delivery of a controlled substance reversed and remanded for entry of a conviction for attempted delivery of a controlled substance; remanded for resentencing; otherwise affirmed.
JAMES, J.
“[T]he actual, constructive or attempted transfer, other than by administering or dispensing, from one person to another of a controlled substance, whether or not there is an agency relationship.”
In Boyd, after observing that “delivery” was defined to include the “attempted transfer” of drugs, we turned—without any examination of the text, context, or legislative history of
Since then, Boyd’s holding has influenced not only the way drug crimes have been prosecuted and charged, but how they have been sentenced. It has also made Oregon an outlier. As a consequence of Boyd, the ordinary hierarchy of offenses in Oregon—that completed crimes are more serious and punished more severely than inchoate crimes, see
Recently, though, we had occasion to revisit Boyd and our characterization of
With our decisions in Rapp and Stockert, the settled rule in Boyd became more unsettling—an outlier that was decided without textual and contextual examination, appears to run counter to the intent of the legislature in adopting the criminal code and providing for a hierarchy of completed versus attempted crimes, and has sweeping consequences for Oregonians who have been charged with and convicted of the completed crime of delivery on a Boyd theory. See State v. O’Hare, 309 Or App 357, 362 n 4, 481 P3d 953 (2021) (noting that, although the defendant did not challenge the correctness of Boyd in that case, “there are reasons to question that conclusion,” particularly in light of Stockert and Rapp). In short, when the state invited us to walk out further on the branch of reasoning supplied by Boyd, it revealed that, not only would the branch not support additional weight, but it might be hollow at its core.
This appeal, like many before it, involves a question as to the sufficiency of the evidence to support a Boyd theory of delivery, and the parties initially briefed the case in terms of whether the evidence satisfied the Boyd standard. However, in light of our recent decisions casting doubt on Boyd’s underpinnings, and given that in this case we were being asked to build upon Boyd, we requested that the state and defendant provide supplemental briefing addressing
whether our decision in Boyd was consistent, in the first instance, with legislative intent under our ordinary principles of statutory interpretation. Having received that additional briefing, we now conclude that Boyd’s leap—defining the word “attempt” within a substantive statute to be the inchoate crime of attempt—was not just wrong but plainly wrong; it was a statutory interpretation with “deficiencies [that] are apparent with even a basic exploration of the text and context of the statute, let alone its legislative history.” State v. Civil, 283 Or App 395, 417-18, 388 P3d 1185 (2017). After employing our usual methodology for construing statutes (something that did not happen in Boyd), it is readily apparent that the legislature meant for the word “attempted” in
I. BACKGROUND
A. Factual Background
Police responded to a call that three people had overdosed at a hotel room in Tigard, Oregon, and they determined that the likely cause of the overdoses was pure fentanyl powder. One of the people who overdosed told police that the fentanyl came from a container in defendant’s room at a different
Police obtained and executed a search warrant for defendant’s room, where they found a rubber container at the foot of his bed. When police opened the container, they found shirts on top of the contents, which included video games, movies, books, family photos, and a black and silver lockbox. Police opened the lockbox and found a knitted cap,
and inside the cap were several plastic zip lock baggies. One of the baggies contained almost an ounce of what appeared to be a pure white powder. Another smaller baggie contained .23 grams of the same powder. Four more baggies contained .04 grams of the same powder, and one also included methamphetamine. The cap also contained three or four empty baggies with white powder residue.
The crime lab later identified the white powder as fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is about 50 times stronger than morphine. According to the detective who investigated the overdoses, fentanyl is prescribed for pain management in patch form containing 25 to 75 micrograms or in pill form containing 100 to 400 micrograms (for terminally ill patients). On the street, the pure form, a white powder, is mixed with highly cut heroin to boost its effectiveness or used to make counterfeit Oxycontin tablets. Fentanyl is not commonly sought on its own because it is so dangerous and because the high is less pleasant and does not last as long as from heroin. For that reason, it is more often sold to dealers.
The amount of fentanyl found in defendant’s room was never tested for purity, but one ounce of pure powder would have been equivalent to 375,000 microgram doses at 75 micrograms per dose. The amount in the four small baggies, .04 grams, was consistent with either a user amount or sale to street-level dealers to mix with other drugs. The detective estimated the street value of the fentanyl found in defendant’s room to be in the $1,000 to $3,000 dollar range.
The detective spoke with defendant at the jail after the warrant was executed, telling him about the overdoses and asking about the fentanyl. Defendant told the detective that the fentanyl had been in his possession for some time. He said that he got it from an ex-girlfriend whose associate in the military had obtained it “through the dark web from China.” According to defendant, he had not delivered or distributed the fentanyl “because he knew the dangers of it and didn’t want to be responsible for anyone’s death.” He said that it had been in the tub since he obtained it, that he was preparing to move, and that he had moved the tub from another location to the hotel room and had plans to
move it to a new location. After the interview, defendant was arrested.
B. Procedural History
1. Trial proceedings
Defendant was charged with unlawful possession of a Schedule II controlled substance,
Defendant, meanwhile, argued that Boyd required more than prepacking to give rise to an inference of intent to deliver, and he moved for a judgment of acquittal on that basis. According to defendant, the record included no evidence as to “who, when, or why the bags were broken up at all,” nor was there any evidence of other materials commonly associated with the transfer of controlled substances, such as scales, cutting agents, pill presses, unused packaging materials,
The trial court rejected defendant’s arguments, explaining that it was not aware of any authority requiring the state to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the prospective sale was going to occur within a specified time
period. The court explained that defendant “had several baggies with user-size quantities prepared and ready to go,” and it found him guilty on both counts. The court merged the guilty verdicts and entered a single conviction for delivery of a controlled substance, the more serious of the two offenses. See
2. Issues on appeal
Defendant appealed that judgment, assigning error to the trial court’s denial of his motion for a judgment of acquittal on the delivery count. In his opening brief, he developed the same arguments that he had raised below: that proof of a Boyd delivery requires more than a large amount of drugs, even if some are prepackaged; and that, even if he intended to transfer some of the fentanyl at some future time, the state still needed to prove that he had taken a substantial step toward that future transfer.
In response, the state directed us to previous cases in which we had affirmed convictions on a Boyd theory where there was evidence of a large quantity of controlled substances, inconsistent with personal use, along with packaging materials. State v. Newsted, 297 Or App 848, 855, 444 P3d 527 (2019); State v. Alvarez-Garcia, 212 Or App 663, 667-68, 159 P3d 357 (2007). Beyond that, the state argued that defendant misunderstood the import of Boyd’s incorporation of the “substantial step” standard:
“Defendant’s argument misconstrues the relationship between the intent to transfer and the substantial step toward delivery. In a case of possession with intent to deliver, ‘intent to transfer’ and ‘substantial step’ are not separate elements. * ** If the evidence supports a finding that defendant possessed fentanyl and intended to transfer it, then the evidence supports a delivery conviction.”
Defendant then filed a reply brief in which he asserted that the state was mistaken and that “intent to transfer” and “substantial step” are separate elements, relying on cases involving the inchoate crime of attempt. He further argued that, to the extent that Alvarez-Garcia and Newsted “appear to conflate the intent and substantial step analyses,” they were wrongly decided.
As the issues were framed by the parties’ initial briefing, we were asked to clarify the holding in Boyd with respect to how, exactly, the “substantial step” element of
The first of those two decisions was Stockert, which involved hunting offenses under the wildlife statutes, ORS chapters 498 and 496. 303 Or App at 315. The relevant statutes defined “hunt” to mean “to take or attempt to take any wildlife” but did not provide a definition of “attempt.” Id. (emphasis added);
We rejected the state’s effort to import
Notes
“Except as otherwise expressly provided, or unless the context requires otherwise, the provisions of chapter 743, Oregon Laws 1971, shall govern the construction of and punishment for any offense defined outside chapter 743, Oregon Laws 1971, and committed after January 1, 1972, as well as the construction and application of any defense to a prosecution for such an offense.”
opinion in United States v. Havis, 929 F3d 317, 319 (6th Cir 2019) (Sutton, J., concurring in denial of en banc reconsideration), which differentiated between the use of the word “attempt” in its ordinary sense in federal controlled substances laws and those laws that refer to the inchoate crime of attempt. 303 Or App at 319.
Shortly after Stockert, we decided Rapp, in which the question was whether the crime of fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer implicitly incorporates the requirement that the defendant has acted intentionally. 306 Or App at 267. In that case, the state took the opposite approach that it had taken in Stockert and Boyd. In response to the defendant’s contention that the legislature would have understood “attempt” to be a term of art that incorporated concepts associated with inchoate crimes—specifically, the requirement of an intentional mental state—the state distinguished between completed crimes that use “attempt” and inchoate offenses:
“The state asserts that the crime identified in
ORS 811.540(1) is not an inchoate crime and, therefore, an intentional mental state is not incorporated into the statute. The state views the statute as defining the crime of attempting to elude a police officer as ‘a substantive crime that is complete once a person knowingly continues to drive and avoids compliance with a pursuing officer. * ** In other words, the attempt to elude is, itself, the injury or harm described in the offense, not a substantial step toward some other offense.’”
Rapp, 306 Or App at 272.
We agreed with that distinction between a substantive crime that uses the term “attempt” and the principles encompassed by the inchoate crime of attempt:
“The sources on which defendant relies do suggest that, in 1963, the state could charge a defendant with an attempt to commit an act that, if completed, would be a statutorily defined crime—and that, if the state did so, it would have to prove that the defendant undertook that attempt intentionally. But those sources relate to inchoate crimes; they do not speak to the type of statute at issue here—a statute that defines a crime in terms of an attempted act. We have recently held that the mere inclusion of the word ‘attempts’
in a statute does not always signify legislative intent to use that word in the sense associated with inchoate crimes. See [Stockert, 303 Or App at 319] (concluding that the legislature used the word ‘attempt’ in a statute ‘in its ordinary sense ***, rather than in its legal sense of defining inchoate crime’). And, in our view, nothing in the text of
Rapp, 306 Or App at 274-75 (emphasis added). We then went on to conclude that the phrase “attempts to elude” could not be parsed in the way that the defendant proposed, and that it instead described “a course of conduct—attempting to escape the notice of police—that constitutes a completed crime if undertaken knowingly.” Id. at 277.
In light of Stockert and Rapp, we invited supplemental briefing from the parties on the following questions:
(1) Is the approach in Boyd consistent with legislative intent, as evidenced by the text, context and, if relevant and available, legislative history of
ORS 475.005(8) ? If not, is Boyd ‘plainly wrong’ under the standards set forth in [Civil, 283 Or App at 406]?(2) If Boyd was correct to look to the inchoate crime of attempt for the meaning of the word ‘attempted’ in
ORS 475.005(8) , does the inchoate crime of attempted delivery of a controlled substance exist in Oregon and, if so, what are its elements?(3) If the word ‘attempted’ in
ORS 475.005(8) is not defined according to the inchoate crime of attempt, what definition of ‘attempted’ most accurately reflects legislative intent? Based on the definition you propose, how would that affect this case?”
The parties subsequently supplied that briefing. To summarize their respective positions, defendant argues that Boyd’s construction of
part, argues that Boyd was correctly decided because the legislature intended to criminalize possession with intent to distribute; that, even if this court were to disagree, we should not overrule Boyd as plainly wrong; but that, even if we did, we should still affirm defendant’s conviction under the ordinary meaning of “attempt.”
II. DISCUSSION
With that background, we begin our analysis of the key questions in this case: (1) Should we adhere to Boyd’s importation of the inchoate crime of attempt for purposes of defining “attempt” in
A. Overruling Boyd
1. The “plainly wrong” standard
Under the principle of stare decisis, courts assume that their “fully considered prior cases are correctly decided,” which means that “the party seeking to change a precedent must assume responsibility for affirmatively persuading [the court] that [it] should abandon that precedent.” Farmers Ins. Co. v. Mowry, 350 Or 686, 697-98, 261 P3d 1 (2011) (internal quotation marks omitted). In other words, adherence to considered precedent is presumptive, and we will not “lightly overrule” our precedent, including those cases construing statutes. Civil, 283 Or App at 416; accord Mowry, 350 Or at 697-98 (describing the prudential principles undergirding stare decisis, including stability and predictability, consistency, reasonable expectations of parties, and the central tenant that “courts should treat like cases alike”).
At the same time, as we explained in Civil, we have a competing obligation to reach what we regard as a correct interpretation of a statute. Id. at 406 (citing Assoc. Unit Owners of Timbercrest Condo. v. Warren, 352 Or 583, 598, 288 P3d 958 (2012)). To balance those potentially competing
interests, we ordinarily will not overrule a previous construction of a statute unless we conclude that it is “plainly wrong,” a “rigorous standard grounded in presumptive fidelity to stare decisis.” Id.
2. The flaws in Boyd’s approach
As we turn to whether Boyd meets the “plainly wrong” standard, we begin by noting that it presents the type of case where Oregon courts are more “open to reconsidering earlier case law” construing a statute: that is, an earlier construction in which we “failed to apply our usual framework for decision or adequately analyze the controlling issue.” Warren, 352 Or at 598. Boyd, as noted earlier, incorporated
“The relevant inquiry in this case is whether possession of the large amount of heroin, not for personal use but for sale, constitutes attempted delivery within the meaning of the
ORS 475.005(8) , which does not define either attempted transfer or attempt. The provisions of the Oregon Criminal Code of 1971,ORS 161.005 toORS 167.820 , are therefore applicable. SeeORS 161.035 .“
ORS 161.405(1) provides:“A person is guilty of an attempt to commit a crime when the person intentionally engages in conduct which constitutes a substantial step toward commission of the crime.”
92 Or App at 53-54 (footnote setting out the text of
From there, having not considered the text or context, we jumped to the Commentary to the 1971 Criminal Code with regard to the meaning of “substantial step,” based on our unexamined assumption that
substantial step,” including “‘(e) possession of materials to be employed in the commission of the crime, which are specially designed for such unlawful use or which can serve no lawful purpose of the actor under the circumstances,’” and “‘(f) possession, collection or fabrication of materials to be employed in the commission of the crime, at or near the place contemplated for its commission, where such possession, collection or fabrication serves no lawful purpose of the actor under the circumstances[.]’” Id. at 54 (quoting Commentary to the Criminal Code of 1971, § 54, at 49-50) (emphases added). Based on that commentary, we agreed with the state that “the fact that defendant possessed the large amount of heroin together with her admission that she acquired it in order to sell it amounts to evidence that she had taken a substantial step toward the commission of the crime of delivery of a controlled substance.” Id. (emphasis added).
It was only after reaching that conclusion that we addressed the defendant’s argument that the legislative history of
[T]he Oregon legislature intended to penalize only possession and delivery of controlled substances but not possession with intent to deliver, which is a distinct crime, and that the state’s evidence was relevant only to possession, but not to delivery. The uniform act separately penalizes delivery, possession with intent to deliver and possession. 9 Uniform Laws Annot., § 401(a), (c). The Oregon act separately penalizes delivery and possession, but not possession with intent to deliver.
ORS 475.992(1) , (4). The definition of ‘delivery,’ in relevant part, is the same in both acts. 9 Uniform Laws Annot., § 101(f);ORS 475.005(8) .
Boyd, 92 Or App at 54.
However, because we were operating on the assumption that the legislature meant to incorporate
“There is no indication that the Oregon legislature intended to punish an attempt to transfer a controlled
substance other than as the completed transfer. It did so without enacting the distinct crime of possession with intent to deliver, because that crime, considering the meaning of ‘attempt,’ is included in the definition of ‘delivery.’ There was no error.”
92 Or App at 54-55 (emphasis added).
The fact that Boyd’s analytic path does not track our current methodology is not, by itself, sufficient reason to abandon it. See generally Mastriano v. Board of Parole, 342 Or 684, 692, 159 P3d 1151 (2007) (“The absence of a PGE-style examination of legislative intent does not deprive a prior statutory interpretation of its ordinary effect as a precedent.”). But here, Boyd’s departure from our ordinary methodology—that is, an examination that begins with the text and context of the statute—is indicative of a deeper problem. Boyd did not merely reach a conclusion based on an unexamined or unexplained assumption; it reached one based on a fundamentally incorrect assumption about
Simply put,
(1) A person is guilty of an attempt to commit a crime when the person intentionally engages in conduct which constitutes a substantial step toward commission of the crime.
(2) An attempt is a:
(a) Class A felony if the offense attempted is any degree of murder, aggravated murder or treason.
(b) Class B felony if the offense attempted is a Class A felony.
(c) Class C felony if the offense attempted is a Class B felony.
(d) Class A misdemeanor if the offense attempted is a Class C felony or an unclassified felony.
(e) Class B misdemeanor if the offense attempted is a Class A misdemeanor.
(f) Class C misdemeanor if the offense attempted is a Class B misdemeanor.
(g) Violation if the offense attempted is a Class C misdemeanor or an unclassified misdemeanor.”2
As we recently noted in O’Hare, “
Additional statutory context, as well as the Criminal Code Commentary, leave no doubt that
Code Commentary explains that the section that became
What is equally plain from the text and context of
Considering the structure of the criminal code, which carefully delineates between an inchoate and completed crime, there is no plausible argument supporting the idea that the legislature intended
In fact, the state does not appear to defend that aspect of Boyd—that is, the state does not argue that
To the extent the state is attempting to salvage Boyd by recasting its rationale, we decline that escape route. Boyd did not hold that the meaning of “attempt” was merely informed by or “consistent with” the meaning of “attempt” in
To the extent that the state is offering a different path to Boyd’s same holding, it still suffers from the same basic flaw as Boyd’s approach, in that it equates the word “attempted” and the crime of “attempt.”
specific to the context of the inchoate crime of attempt, and it focused on whether the defendant’s conduct had advanced past the stage of “mere preparation” and constituted a substantial step toward committing the crime. And it is in that specific context that we have observed that the word “attempt” can carry with it the well-established meaning in
There is no reason to believe that, when using the phrase “attempted transfer,” the legislature understood the word “attempted” to import the full meaning of the inchoate crime of attempt under
The state’s only answer to that question relies, like Boyd, on sheer speculation about why Oregon did not include “possession with intent to manufacture or deliver” in its controlled substances statutes. The state acknowledges that the legislative history of
“[T]here would be no reason to make possession with intent to deliver a separate crime since such evidence would be sufficient to constitute an ‘attempted transfer’ if ‘attempt’ was given the meaning it has under
ORS 161.405 . Thus, the fact that the legislature did not adopt the UCSA’s prohibition on possession with intent to deliver supports an interpretation of the word ‘attempted’ in the statutory definition of ‘delivery’ as having the same meaning as the inchoate offense of ‘attempt.’”
Setting aside the fact that there is no textual or contextual reason to believe that the legislature would have understood
To the contrary, as defendant points out, the legislature’s omission and variance from the UCSA is more indicative of a conscious policy decision not to criminalize “possess with intent to manufacture or deliver” as part of the completed crime of delivery. The legislative history from 1977 does not explain exactly why the phrase “possess with intent to manufacture or deliver” was not included in Oregon’s version, but it does reflect that the differences between the UCSA and Oregon’s version were “based upon the collective policy judgment of the subcommittee and the bill’s sponsors.” Exhibit 3, Senate Committee on Judiciary, SB 904, Apr 7, 1977 (stating that SB 904 “retains the basic control mechanisms of the UCSA, but incorporates many of the unique features of existing Oregon law and further modifies the UCSA based upon the collective judgment of the subcommittee and the bill’s sponsors”). Normally, we would not hesitate to give effect to that type of conscious departure
from a model act. E.g., State v. Carpenter, 365 Or 488, 499, 446 P3d 1273 (2019) (describing conscious choice to depart from a model act). But, rather than give effect to the legislative choice to omit the phrase “possess with intent to manufacture or deliver,” Boyd adopted an implausible meaning of “attempt,” reinserted what the legislature had omitted, and thereby grafted a corrupted branch onto what otherwise, potentially, could have been a healthy tree. See Comcast Corp. v. Dept. of Rev., 363 Or 537, 545, 423 P3d 706 (2018) (rejecting proposed interpretation that “would require this court to insert” wording that the legislature chose not to include); see also
3. Abandoning Boyd
With those deep analytical flaws in mind, we briefly address the state’s contention that “a factor that heavily weighs against overruling Boyd as plainly wrong is the fact that Boyd is well-established in Oregon.” The state explains that, “[i]n Oregon, trial courts and litigants have relied on Boyd’s understanding of an ‘attempted delivery’ of controlled substances for over 30 years” and that “this court has repeatedly affirmed, or recognized, Boyd’s holding about what attempted delivery means; moreover, despite having opportunity to do so, the Oregon Supreme Court has never weighed in on—much less overruled—Boyd.”
All that is true, but it is not a reason to perpetuate what was then—and is now—a plainly incorrect reading of the statute. The effect of Boyd was to create a completed delivery crime on a theory that the legislature did not contemplate and, in fact, appears to have consciously omitted from the completed crime of delivery: possession with intent
to deliver. Depending on the controlled substance and the circumstances of the offense, the difference between the completed crime of delivery and an attempted crime of delivery can be the difference between a felony conviction and a misdemeanor. See
We note that, despite numerous Oregon statutes using the word “attempt,” we can find no other instance where we have defined that term by reference to the inchoate crime. Boyd creates unnecessary uncertainty for the legislature—how exactly will we interpret the legislature’s use of the term “attempt” within a statute? What’s more, we surveyed various statutes and case law interpretations of other jurisdictions and could find not a single example—not one—where either a legislature or the courts interpreted the word “attempt” within a substantive statute to mean the inchoate crime of attempt as contained in the relevant statutory code. Boyd is thus a complete aberration—out of place within Oregon jurisprudence, and out of place nationally.
The real-world consequences of Boyd are especially stark. Under Boyd, a first-time offender, one with no criminal record, convicted of the completed crimes of unlawful delivery of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school,
be classified as an 8-I on the sentencing grid, which carries a presumptive prison term of 16 to 18 months, unless certain findings can be made pursuant to OAR 213-005-0006. However, by construing “attempted transfer” so as to give effect to the legislative intent to create the inchoate crime of attempt, both of those inchoate crimes would be a crime seriousness of 6-I, reflecting the legislative intent of presumptive probation as opposed to incarceration.
Boyd has also had immigration ramifications. Under
Moreover, were we to retain Boyd’s erroneous reading of the statute, we ask ourselves whether we risk perpetuating a construction that would not only be wrong and unjust, but one whose effects may be disproportionately borne along racial and ethnic lines. Some communities have been overrepresented in arrests and convictions for drug offenses in Oregon. See Criminal Justice Commission, Update to Possession of Controlled Substances Report, December 2019 (showing statistical trends for racial and ethnic disparities in controlled substances arrests and convictions between 2013 and 2019); see also State v. Arreola-Botello, 365 Or 695, 713 n 9, 451 P3d 939 (2019) (noting amicus materials in that case presenting “significant statistical data to illustrate the disparate treatment of black and Hispanic motorists during the course of traffic stops, showing specifically that
nationwide, and in Oregon, people of color are statistically more likely to be searched during traffic stops than their white counterparts”). These disparities raise a serious question about the delivery of equal justice in Oregon. If those disparities have permeated delivery cases prosecuted under a Boyd theory, has the brunt of our mistake in elevating attempted delivery to completed delivery been borne, disproportionately, by Oregonians of color?
Given the dramatic effects that our incorrect interpretation of “attempted transfer” can have in the lives of individuals and families, not to mention the additional financial cost to Oregon from incarcerating people beyond what was contemplated by the legislature, we see no prudential reason to adhere to our plainly wrong decision in Boyd simply because it is settled law. Nor, in these circumstances, do we find subsequent inaction by the legislature or our Supreme Court to be a particularly compelling justification to adhere to Boyd. There are many reasons our legislature6 and Supreme Court7 might not take up particular issues or weigh in on the correctness of our decisions. Whatever the reason they have not disturbed it, Boyd was our mistake, and it is one that we can and should fix.
For all of these reasons, we overrule Boyd and will instead interpret “attempted” in accordance with our ordinary approach to statutory construction.8
4. The meaning of “attempted transfer”
To this point, we have discussed what “attempted transfer” is not; it is not an embedded inchoate crime of delivery, as Boyd reasoned. But that leaves the question of what an “attempted transfer” is. To answer that question, we apply our usual methodology for statutory construction, looking to the text and context of
We start with the text.
Contextually, the adjective “attempted” modifies a specific act that is part of the crime, as opposed to the crime itself: The word “attempted” modifies “transfer,” which is not synonymous with the crime of delivery of a controlled substance (despite what Boyd may have said). The noun “transfer,” in the context of property, means “the conveyance of right, title, or interest in either real or personal property from one person to another by sale, gift, or other process,” or the “the removal or acquisition of property by mere delivery with intent of the parties involved to transfer the title.” Webster’s at 2427. More generally, it can refer to an act of “transferring,” that is, “caus[ing] to pass from one person or thing to another,” or “carry[ing] or tak[ing] from one person or place to another : transport[ing].” Webster’s at 2427 (defining the verb “transfer”); see also Black’s Law Dictionary 1497 (6th ed 1990) (defining “transfer” to include “[t]he sale and every other method, direct or indirect, of disposing of or
parting with property or with an interest therein”); accord State v. Frederickson, 92 Or App 223, 225, 757 P2d 1366 (1988) (“The legislature has defined ‘delivery’ the way it is commonly understood: as a ‘transfer * * * from one person to another.’ ‘Transfer’ is not defined by statute. It means, among other things, ‘give,’ ‘yield possession or control of,’ or ‘send.’ Webster’s Third New Int’l Dictionary 597.” (Quoting the definition of “deliver” rather than “transfer”)).
Read in the context of modifying the word “transfer,” the apt meaning of “attempted” is an unsuccessful effort to accomplish the particular act of transferring, not a “substantial step” toward the crime of delivery more broadly. Webster’s captures that ordinary meaning of an “attempt.” It defines the transitive verb as “1 : to make an effort to do, accomplish, solve, or effect <~ to swim> <~ a problem>—often used in venturous or experimental situations sometimes with implications of failure.” Webster’s at 140. The noun “attempt” is similarly defined as “1 : the act of attempting : essay, trial, endeavor, undertaking; esp : an unsuccessful effort.” Id.9
Read together, the words “attempted transfer” appear to describe an unsuccessful effort to cause the controlled substances to pass from one person to another. The surrounding context bolsters that reading. Delivery also includes an “actual” and “constructive” transfer. The relevant meaning of “actual” is “existing in fact or reality : really acted or acting or carried out—contrasted with ideal and hypothetical,” or “in existence or taking place at the time : present, current <caught in the ~ commission of the crime>.” Webster’s at 22. The adjective “constructive” means “derived from or depending on construction or interpretation : not directly expressed : inferred—often used in law of an act or condition assumed from other acts or conditions which are considered by inference or by public policy as amounting to or involving the act or condition assumed.” Webster’s at 489. We presume that each of those types of transfers refers to something different: an actual, i.e., successful or completed transfer; a constructive, i.e., inferred or presumed transfer
based on the circumstances;10 and an attempted, i.e., unsuccessful or incomplete transfer. See Dept. of Transportation v. Stallcup, 341 Or 93, 101, 138 P3d 9 (2006) (when the legislature uses different terms in a statute, it likely intended them to have different meanings).
As additional context, “attempted transfer” is preceded by the definite article “the.” As we explained in O’Hare, “[t]he use of the singular determinative ‘the’ indicates that the legislature intended to criminalize particular singular acts of actually, constructively, or attempting to transfer controlled substances and, more to the point, intended to require the state to prove the existence of a particular actual, constructive, or attempted transfer.” 309 Or App at 363. The statute further requires the transfer to be “from one person to another.”
And, as much of the preceding discussion suggests, reading “attempted” to refer to an incomplete or unsuccessful transfer is more consonant with the broader structure of Oregon’s criminal code, in that it preserves the inchoate offense for delivery of a controlled substance. If a defendant has tried to actually transfer a controlled substance to another person, that defendant will be guilty of the completed offense, regardless of whether the transfer itself was successful. But, where a person has merely taken
a substantial step toward the crime of delivery but has not yet attempted the transfer itself, the defendant will have committed the inchoate crime of attempted delivery of a controlled substance.
B. Sufficiency of the Evidence
With that revised understanding of what constitutes an “attempted” transfer of drugs under
The facts of this case highlight the difference between Boyd’s focus on a substantial step toward the crime of delivery and the ordinary meaning of “attempted,” which modifies the act of transfer rather than the crime of delivery. The state’s evidence gave rise to an inference that defendant acquired and possessed an exceptionally large amount of fentanyl for the purpose of dealing. As the state points out, it was not an amount consistent with personal use; rather, a jury could reasonably infer on this record that it was enough for hundreds of thousands of individual doses of the drug. That amount, along with separate packaging for smaller doses, gives rise to an inference that the drugs were
acquired and possessed for future transfer, notwithstanding defendant’s statements to the contrary.
And, if the question before us were whether a trier of fact could find that defendant had taken a “substantial step” toward the crime of delivery, we would agree with the state that it had presented sufficient evidence to prove its case. An “attempt” under
But, as explained above, an “attempted” transfer requires more than evidence of a substantial step toward the crime of delivery as a whole. To prove an “attempted” transfer, the state’s evidence must give rise to an inference that defendant made some effort to cause the controlled substances to pass from one person to another. It is not sufficient for the state to show the defendant’s purpose in acquiring drugs; it must also prove the element of a transfer, either actual, constructive, or attempted. A defendant’s possession, even in anticipation of transfer or with the intent to later transfer them, is not the same as the transfer itself. We therefore agree with defendant that, under a correct interpretation of
C. Disposition
The remaining question is the appropriate disposition in light of our conclusion that the state’s evidence was legally insufficient to support a conviction for a completed delivery offense. Generally, the attempt to commit a crime is a lesser-included offense of the crime itself, see, e.g., State v. Odnorozhenko, 224 Or App 288, 295, 197 P3d 562 (2008), and “‘[i]n all cases, the defendant may be found guilty of
any crime the commission of which is necessarily included in that with which the defendant is charged in the accusatory instrument or of an attempt to commit such crime.’” State v. Cruz-Gonzelez, 256 Or App 811, 814, 303 P3d 983, rev den, 354 Or 61 (2013) (quoting
This case is unique in that, because of Boyd, defendant was essentially tried and found guilty of an attempt crime that had been erroneously elevated to a completed offense. As discussed above, we agree with the state that its evidence was legally sufficient to support a finding of a substantial step toward the completed crime of delivery of a controlled substance. We therefore reverse and remand for entry of a conviction for the lesser-included crime of attempted delivery of a controlled substance, which is the offense that defendant should have been convicted of committing rather than the completed crime.11
Conviction for delivery of a controlled substance reversed and remanded for entry of a conviction for attempted delivery of a controlled substance; remanded for resentencing; otherwise affirmed.