St. Louis man's death forces dismissal of case heard by Supreme Court

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- The shooting death of Mario Claiborne has forced the dismissal of the St. Louis man's closely watched case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

A ruling was expected within the next few weeks as justices sought to clarify how much discretion federal judges have when applying sentencing guidelines.

But Claiborne, 23, died in a shooting May 29. He was driving a car that pulled into a service station just before midnight. Police said passenger Terrill Lamarr Newland, 17, got out and stole an idling Dodge Dakota pickup.

Claiborne was following the stolen truck when the truck's former occupant allegedly fired a shot that killed Claiborne. Investigators were still sorting out why Claiborne was following the stolen vehicle.

The day after Claiborne's death, his lawyer, Michael Dwyer, notified the Supreme Court. The case was effectively dismissed Monday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

The appeal focused on whether federal judges can sentence defendants to less than what the sentencing guidelines recommend. The guidelines were intended to make criminal sentences more uniform among federal courts across the country and were considered mandatory until the Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that the guidelines were advisory.

Claiborne had no criminal record before he pleaded guilty to two drug charges involving cocaine and faced 37 to 46 months in federal prison. Instead, U.S. District Judge Carol E. Jackson sentenced him to 15 months in March 2005, citing his age, lack of a previous record and the small quantity of drugs.

Federal prosecutors appealed the low sentence, and in February 2006, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Jackson had applied an extraordinary variance that is not supported by comparably extraordinary circumstances. Claiborne's attorneys then asked the Supreme Court to intervene.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in February.

The case could have affected thousands of criminal defendants and a growing backlog of cases awaiting resolution of the issue. Justice Department statistics show that about 9,800 of the more than 70,000 defendants sentenced in federal court in fiscal 2006 got similar departures from guideline sentences.

Both Dwyer and government lawyers have proposed an alternative case out of Cape Girardeau, Mo. In that case, Terrence Beal was sentenced to less than half of the recommended prison time of nearly 16 years on a cocaine charge.

"Just because Mr. Claiborne passed away, the issue didn't," said Mike Reap, an assistant U.S. attorney. "All of us want to know what we are supposed to do."

In the truck theft case in St. Louis, prosecutors have charged Newland with stealing a motor vehicle and explored charging him with felony murder because a death resulted from the crime. Prosecutors have not charged the gunman, whom they haven't identified publicly.

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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com