11-2010-cr

United States v. Gist

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

SUMMARY ORDER

RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A

SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED

BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. 

WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY

MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE

NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY CITING A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY

OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL. 

At a stated Term of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, held at the

Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street, in the City of New York,

on the 29th day of November, two thousand twelve,

Present: AMALYA L. KEARSE,

CHESTER J. STRAUB,

ROSEMARY S. POOLER,

Circuit Judges.

_____________________________________________________

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Appellee,

 -v- 11-2010-cr

GAMALE GIST,

Defendant-Appellant.

_____________________________________________________

Appearing for Appellee: Rajit S. Dosanjh (Ransom P. Reynolds, on the brief), Assistant

United States Attorneys, for Richard S. Hartunian, United States

Attorney, Northern District of New York, Syracuse, NY

 

Appearing for Appellant: Steven Y. Yurowitz, New York, NY

Appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Northern District of

New York (Suddaby, J.).

ON CONSIDERATION WHEREOF, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED,

AND DECREED that the judgment of said District Court be and it hereby is AFFIRMED in

part and VACATED and REMANDED in part. 
1

 To the extent the district court determines that the terms of incarceration and supervised

release are intertwined such that reconsideration of supervised release requires revisiting the

custodial component of Gist’s sentence, on remand the district court should revisit that

component and may—but need not—re-sentence Gist with respect to the term of imprisonment

as well..

2

Gamale Gist appeals from the sentence of 262 months imprisonment and 15 years

supervised release imposed by the district court on May 6, 2011. We assume the parties’

familiarity with the underlying facts, procedural history, and specification of issues for review.

In Dorsey v. United States, 132 S. Ct. 2321 (2012), the Supreme Court concluded that the

revised mandatory minimum sentences of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, Pub. L. No. 111-220,

§ 2, 124 Stat. 2372 (“FSA”), applied to individuals who had committed their offenses prior to the

passage of the Act but were not sentenced until after the August 3, 2010 enactment date. The

application of Dorsey in this case requires that we vacate Gist’s term of supervised release and

remand to the district court for re-sentencing consistent with the FSA. See United States v.

Highsmith, 688 F.3d 74, 77 (2d Cir. 2012). The government concedes that, had the FSA been

applied, Gist would have been subject to a mandatory minimum supervised release term of eight

years rather than the 10-year minimum stated in the presentence report. Because there is no

unambiguous indication in the record that the district court would have imposed the same 15-

year term of supervised release if it had known the FSA was to be applied retroactively, remand

for re-sentencing as to that aspect of the sentence is required.

Although Gist urges us to remand for re-sentencing in toto, we decline to do so. “Where

we identify procedural error in a sentence, but the record indicates clearly that ‘the district court

would have imposed the same sentence’ in any event, the error may be deemed harmless,

avoiding the need to vacate the sentence and to remand the case for re-sentencing.” United

States v. Jass, 569 F.3d 47, 68 (2d Cir. 2009) (quoting United States v. Cavera, 550 F.3d 180,

197 (2d Cir. 2008)). It is clear from the sentencing proceeding that the district court based Gist’s

term of imprisonment on his Career Offender status and not on the mandatory minimum under

the pre-FSA version of 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A). Because, even in light of Dorsey, it is clear

the same sentence of imprisonment would have been imposed, the term of imprisonment need

not be vacated.1

 

Accordingly, the judgment of the district court with respect to the term of imprisonment

hereby is AFFIRMED and the judgment of the district court with respect to the term of

supervised release hereby is VACATED and the case is REMANDED for re-sentencing in

accordance with this order.

FOR THE COURT:

Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe, Clerk