Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/252/102/499959/
Timestamp: 2019-10-22 10:45:19
Document Index: 270409991

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 1326', '§ 1326', '§ 1326', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 1326', '§ 1101', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 3', '§ 5', '§ 3585', '§ 3585', '§ 3585', '§ 3585', '§ 3585', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 5', '§ 3553', '§ 5']

United States of America, Appellee, v. Wilson Silvero Gil Fermin, Defendant-appellant, 252 F.3d 102 (2d Cir. 2001) :: Justia
Justia › US Law › Case Law › Federal Courts › Courts of Appeals › Second Circuit › 2001 › United States of America, Appellee, v. Wilson Silvero Gil Fermin, Defendant-appellant
United States of America, Appellee, v. Wilson Silvero Gil Fermin, Defendant-appellant, 252 F.3d 102 (2d Cir. 2001)
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit - 252 F.3d 102 (2d Cir. 2001) Submitted: November 27, 2000Decieded May 29, 2001
Wilson Silvero Gil Fermin ("Fermin") appeals from a judgment of conviction entered on June 5, 2000, by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Berman, J.). Fermin pled guilty under 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a) and (b) (2) to re-entering the United States illegally after deportation. He was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 57 months to be served concurrently with the remaining portion of a state sentence arising from a parole violation.1 At sentencing, the district court declined to reduce Fermin's sentence by the amount of time he had already served on the state parole violation sentence.
On November 2, 1999, while he was serving his sentence for the state parole violation, Fermin was indicted for illegally returning to the United States under 8 U.S.C. §§ 1326(a) and (b) (2).2 The indictment charged him with illegally re-entering the United States after having been deported subsequent to a conviction of an aggravated felony, namely, his 1994 state conviction for robbery. On January 13, 2000, he pled guilty to the indictment, and was sentenced on June 2, 2000.
The presentence report for Fermin calculated a Guidelines range for his violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a) and (b) (2) at 57 to 71 months based on a criminal history category of IV and an adjusted offense level of 21.3 At sentencing, Fermin argued for a concurrent sentence both as to the remaining portion of his state sentence for the parole violation and for the time he had already served on that sentence.4 As to the latter, he asked that he be "credited" for this time in two ways.5 He argued that under U.S.S.G. § 5G1.3(c) and Application Note 2 to § 5G1.3, the court should subtract from his federal sentence the time already served for his parole violation, or that the court should depart downward.
Fermin argues, however, that the court need not conduct a § 5K2.0 departure analysis and that downward departures are permitted by § 5G1.3(c). But, as this Court has previously noted, " [Section] 5G1.3(c) of the 1998 U.S.S.G. and its accompanying application notes do not contain any language authorizing the district court to grant a downward departure in order to achieve a reasonable incremental punishment." Acevedo, 229 F.3d at 357. In contrast, application notes to other guidelines sections specifically recognize departures. For example, under U.S.S.G. § 2Q1.2, which pertains to offenses involving hazardous waste disposal, Application Notes 5 through 9 provide for departures based on factors set forth in their texts. See also U.S.S.G. § 2F1.1, cmt. n.11, 12 (providing for upward departures under certain circumstances in cases involving fraud, forgery, and offenses involving altered or counterfeit instruments); U.S.S.G. § 2G2.2, cmt. n.2 (providing for upward departures in some cases involving trafficking, receiving, or possessing material involving the sexual exploitation of a minor where the defendant also engaged in the sexual abuse of a minor).
Section 1326(a) provides, in part, that any alien who has been deported and later enters the United States without the consent of the Attorney General shall be subject to a term of imprisonment. Under § 1326(b) (2), the maximum term of imprisonment for an alien "whose removal was subsequent to a conviction for commission of an aggravated felony" is twenty years. Fermin's first-degree robbery conviction was an "aggravated felony" under 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a) (43).
Fermin's adjusted offense level was based on a base offense level of eight pursuant to § 2L1.2(a) of the Guidelines, a sixteen-level enhancement under § 2L1.2(b) (1) (A) because the robbery conviction constituted an aggravated felony, and a three level downward adjustment for acceptance of responsibility pursuant to § 3E1.1(a) and (b). There is no dispute concerning the Guidelines calculations.
The fact that Fermin had not yet completed his state sentence at the time of his federal sentencing is critical because " [i]f the defendant has completed his state prison term before the federal sentence is imposed, § 5G1.3 does not apply, and his federal prison term cannot be imposed concurrently." United States v. Labeille-Soto, 163 F.3d 93, 99 (2d Cir. 1998).
According to the parole board's order, Fermin was eligible for early release on his conditional release date of February 28, 2000. Fermin contends that the reason he was not released on this date was because he had been taken into federal custody by writ of habeas corpus ad prosequendum on November 18, 1999. He also did not receive credit toward his federal sentence for any time he served before his federal sentencing date of June 2, 2000, because that time was credited towards his state sentence. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3585(a), a defendant's federal sentence begins when he or she "is received in custody awaiting transportation to, or arrives voluntarily to commence service of sentence at, the official detention facility at which the sentence is to be served." However, a defendant held at a federal detention facility is not "in custody" for the purposes of § 3585(a) when he is produced through a writ of habeas corpus ad prosequendum. See Roche v. Sizer, 675 F.2d 507, 510 (2d Cir. 1986) (decided under a previous version of § 3585); Thomas v. Whalen, 962 F.2d 358, 361 n.3 (4th Cir. 1992) (same). Further, under 18 U.S.C. § 3585(b) (2), the state time that Fermin had served before his federal sentencing, including the period of time after his conditional release date, would not be credited towards his federal sentence, because a defendant is credited only for the following: any time he has spent in official detention prior to the date the sentence commences- (1) as a result of the offense for which the sentence was imposed; or (2) as a result of any other charge for which the defendants was arrested after the commission of the offense for which the sentence was imposed; that has not been credited against another sentence. 18 U.S.C. § 3585(b) (emphasis added). The Bureau of Prisons could not credit Fermin for the time he had already served because it was credited against another sentence-the state parole violation-even though he might have been discharged earlier on his state sentence.
The government argues that another reason why the district courts should not apply Note 2 to cases arising under subsection (c) is that doing so would require courts to "backdate" sentences. " [T]he determination of the precise date on which a sentence begins appears to have been intended to be a ministerial decision that depends on the timing of the defendant's arrival at the appropriate place with respect to the sentence that is to be served." Labeille-Soto, 163 F.3d at 98; see also United States v. Gonzalez, 192 F.3d 350, 353 (2d Cir. 1999). However, under the methodology provided by Note 2, the district court does not set the date on which the sentence begins, it merely adjusts the new sentence to account for time already served.
The previous version of subsection (c) provided, "(Policy Statement) In any other case, the sentence for the instant offense shall be imposed to run consecutively to the prior undischarged term of imprisonment to the extent necessary to achieve a reasonable incremental punishment for the instant offense." U.S.S.G. § 5G1.3(c) (1994). Application Note 3 explained that a consecutive sentence is not required when a reasonable incremental punishment may be achieved through the use of a concurrent sentence. Note 3 also described a methodology for fashioning a concurrent sentence. " [T]his methodology [did] not, itself, require the court to depart from the guideline range established for the instant offense." U.S.S.G. § 5G1.3(c), cmt. n. 3. Instead, it was "meant to assist the court in determining the appropriate sentence (e.g., the appropriate point within the applicable guideline range, whether to order the sentence to run concurrently or consecutively to the undischarged term of imprisonment, or whether a departure [was] warranted)." Id.
" [T]he sentencing court may impose a sentence outside the range established by the applicable guidelines, if the court finds `that there exists an aggravating or mitigating circumstance of a kind, or to a degree, not adequately taken into consideration by the Sentencing Commission in formulating the guidelines that should result in a sentence different from that described.'" U.S.S.G. § 5K2.0 (quoting 18 U.S.C. § 3553(b)). Further, "Before a departure is permitted, certain aspects of the case must be found unusual enough for it to fall outside the heartland of cases in the Guideline." Koon v. United States, 518 U.S. 81, 98 (1996); see also United States v. Tappin, 205 F.3d 536, 539-40 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 121 S. Ct. 260 (2000); Labeillle-Soto, 163 F.3d at 100-01.
The district court decided to impose Fermin's federal sentence concurrent with the undischarged portion of Fermin's state sentence. Under Application Note 6, district courts "should" impose a sentence for the instant offense to run consecutively to any term imposed for a violation of state probation, parole, or supervised release. U.S.S.G. § 5G1.3, cmt. n.6. However, a consecutive sentence is not required, as courts "retain [] the discretion under Note 6 to sentence a defendant concurrently or partially concurrently." Maria, 186 F.3d at 72.