Commonwealth v. Laltaprasad (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-163-16)

NOTICE:  All slip opinions and orders are subject to formal revision and are superseded by the advance sheets and bound volumes of the Official Reports.  If you find a typographical error or other formal error, please notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Judicial Court, John Adams Courthouse, 1 Pemberton Square, Suite 2500, Boston, MA, 02108-1750; (617) 557-1030; SJCReporter@sjc.state.ma.us   SJC-11970   COMMONWEALTH  vs.  IMRAN LALTAPRASAD.       Suffolk.     April 5, 2016. – October 14, 2016.   Present:  Gants, C.J., Spina, Cordy, Botsford, Duffly, Lenk, & Hines, JJ.[1]       Massachusetts Sentencing Commission.  Practice, Criminal, Sentence, Judicial discretion.  Supreme Judicial Court, Superintendence of inferior courts.  Controlled Substances.       Civil action commenced in the Supreme Judicial Court for the county of Suffolk on August 20, 2015.   The case was reported by Cordy, J.     Thomas C. Maxim, Assistant District Attorney, for the Commonwealth. Matthew R. Segal (Keith J. Nicholson, Adriana Lafaille, & Nancy Gertner with him) for the defendant. Benjamin H. Keehn & Paul R. Rudof, Committee for Public Counsel Services, & Barbara J. Dougan, Michael B. Keating, Daniel N. Marx, & Daniel McFadden, for Committee for Public Counsel Services & others, amici curiae, submitted a brief. Emma Quinn-Judge, Monica R. Shah, & Daniel K. Gelb, for The Constitution Project & others, amici curiae, submitted a brief.     BOTSFORD, J.  In this case we consider whether G. L. c. 211E, § 3 (e), authorizes a sentencing judge to depart from the mandatory minimum terms specified by statute for subsequent drug offenses.  We conclude that because the Legislature has not yet enacted into law sentencing guidelines recommended by the Massachusetts Sentencing Commission (commission), a sentencing judge currently may not impose a sentence that departs from the prescribed mandatory minimum term.  We do not reach in this case the constitutional claims that the defendant has raised for the first time in this court.[2] Background.  In August, 2013, a Middlesex County grand jury indicted the defendant, Imran Laltaprasad, on a charge of possession with intent to distribute heroin, subsequent offense, G. L. c. 94C, § 32 (a), (b); and two charges of possession with intent to distribute cocaine, subsequent offense, G. L. c. 94C, § 32A (c), (d).  In July, 2015, a jury found the defendant guilty of possession with intent to distribute heroin, and one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine; the defendant was found not guilty on the other count of that crime.[3]  The defendant pleaded guilty to the subsequent offense portion of each of these charges.  See G. L. c. 94C, §§ 32 (b) (heroin), 32A (d) (cocaine).  Both counsel presented their sentencing recommendations,[4] and after hearing, the trial judge stated that she would depart downward […]

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