Opinion ID: 3063901
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Battle, Jr.’s sentence

Text: Battle, Jr. argues that the court erred in departing upward from the guidelines, and that the guideline range should have been 46 to 57 months’ imprisonment; in light of his range, his 188 months sentence is unreasonable, he claims. Battle, Jr. also argues that the forfeiture order is grossly disproportionate to his offense and, therefore, a violation of his rights under the Eighth Amendment. Because he has not met his burden of demonstrating that his sentence is unreasonable in light of the record and the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors, we affirm. Initially, Battle, Jr. faced a guideline range of 46 to 57 months. The court, however, upwardly departed and sentenced Battle, Jr. to 188 months, and imposed a forfeiture money judgment in the amount of $642 million dollars against him. Battle, Jr. now argues that the district court erred in departing from the guidelines, or in the alternative, the sentence was not reasonable in light of the 18 U.S.C. § 33 3553(a) factors. The district court plainly stated that it would have reached the sentence that it ultimately imposed based on its analysis of the § 3553(a) factors and independent of it resolution of the issues relating to Battle, Jr.'s guidelines calculations. “After the Supreme Court’s decisions in Booker and Gall, the district courts are still required to correctly calculate the advisory Guidelines range.” United States v. Livesay, 525 F.3d 1081, 1089 (11th Cir. 2008). However, “[t]he Supreme Court and this Court have long recognized that it is not necessary to decide guidelines issues or remand cases for new sentence proceedings where the guidelines error, if any, did not affect the sentence.” United States v. Keene, 470 F.3d 1347, 1349 (11th Cir. 2006); see Williams v. United States, 503 U.S. 193, 203, 112 S. Ct. 112, 1120-21, 117 L.Ed.2d 341 (1992) (“[O]nce the court of appeals has decided that the district court misapplied the Guidelines, a remand is appropriate unless the reviewing court concludes, on the record as a whole, that the error was harmless, i.e., that the error did not affect the district court’s selection of the sentence imposed.”). Accordingly, we need not resolve disputed guidelines issues where the district court has stated, as it did here, that “the guidelines advice that results from the decision of those issues does not matter to the sentence imposed after the § 34 3553(a) factors are considered,” and we conclude that “the sentence imposed through the alternative or fallback reasoning of § 3553(a) [is] reasonable.” Keene, 470 F.3d at 1349. “In determining whether it is reasonable we must assume that there was a guidelines error – that the guidelines issue should have been decided in the way the defendant argued and the advisory range reduced accordingly – and then ask whether the final sentence resulting from consideration of the § 3553(a) factors would still be reasonable.” Id.; see United States v. Dean, 517 F.2d 1224, 1232 (11th Cir. 2007) (applying Keene and holding that, assuming the district court erroneously calculated the defendant’s guidelines range, the sentence nevertheless “was reasonable and stands despite the disputed guidelines issue”). In applying the standard of Gall, discussed supra, we find that Battle Jr.'s sentence was reasonable in light of the record and the factors in § 3553(a). The court considered the § 3553(a) factors and specifically detailed the nature and circumstances of the offense, Battle, Jr.'s history and characteristics, the need to promote respect for the law and provide adequate punishment, the seriousness of the RICO offense and Battle, Jr.'s underlying racketeering activities, and the need to avoid unwarranted sentencing disparities. The court stated that he played a leadership role in the enterprise which lasted over a very substantial period of time and was significant in scope. It further found that the amount of gambling 35 proceeds was staggering; we cannot dispute this as the government showed that the Corporation's gambling operations generated $1.4 billion in proceeds, $642 million of which were generated during the time period in which Battle received gambling profits. Moreover, the court stated on the record that it accounted for the sentences of co-conspirators who were only involved in the Corporation's money laundering activities, and not also in the gambling operations. We also note that Battle, Jr.'s 188-month sentence was well below the 240-month statutory maximum. Here, Battle, Jr. has not shown that the court abused its discretion and imposed an unreasonable 188-month sentence, even with an assumed guidelines range of 46 to 57 months. As a result, we affirm without deciding the contested guidelines issues, because even if we resolved those issues in Battle’s favor, the district court “has already told us that it would impose exactly the same sentence” based on the § 3553(a) factors and independent of its application of the guidelines. See Keene, 470 F.3d at 1350.