Opinion ID: 167110
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Standard of Review After United States v. Booker

Text: 5 In United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005), the Supreme Court held that the mandatory application of the Guidelines to judge-found facts (other than a prior conviction) violates the Sixth Amendment. 125 S.Ct. at 749-50. Rather than declare the Guidelines unconstitutional, however, the Court excised the provision of the federal sentencing statute that made the Guidelines mandatory, 28 U.S.C. § 3553(b)(1), effectively making the Guidelines advisory. The Court also excised 28 U.S.C. § 3742(e), which set forth the standard of review on appeal, and held that the proper standard of review for sentences imposed post- Booker is reasonableness. See Booker, 125 S.Ct. at 764-66. Given that this court is considering for the first time a sentence imposed after Booker, we now delineate the contours of this newly pronounced standard of review. See United States v. Souser, 405 F.3d 1162, 1165 (10th Cir.2005) (declining to review for reasonableness when the district court had not sentenced the defendant under the new, discretionary regime). 6 Reasonableness review is guided by the factors set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), see Booker, 125 S.Ct. at 766, which include the nature of the offense and characteristics of the defendant, as well as the need for the sentence to reflect the seriousness of the crime, to provide adequate deterrence, to protect the public, and to provide the defendant with needed training or treatment, see 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(1)-(2). Significant to our discussion, the now-advisory Guidelines are also a factor to be considered in imposing a sentence, which means that district courts must consult those Guidelines and take them into account when sentencing. Booker, 125 S.Ct. at 767 (citing 18 U.S.C. §§ 3553(a)(4) and (5) (Supp.2004)); see also United States v. Gonzalez-Huerta, 403 F.3d 727, 748-749 (10th Cir.2005) (stating that Booker requires a sentencing court to consider Guidelines ranges). Although this court has not had the opportunity to decide the issue prior to today, several of our sister circuits have held that a sentence that falls within the properly calculated Guidelines range is presumptively reasonable after Booker. See, e.g., United States v. Williams, 436 F.3d 706, 707, 2006 WL 224067 at  (6th Cir.2006); United States v. Alonzo, 435 F.3d 551, 2006 WL 39119 at  (5th Cir.2006); United States v. Mykytiuk, 415 F.3d 606, 608 (7th Cir.2005); United States v. Lincoln, 413 F.3d 716, 717 (8th Cir.2005). 7 Explaining the rationale underlying its holding, the Seventh Circuit in United States v. Mykytiuk reasoned that by requiring district courts to continue to refer to the Guidelines, the Supreme Court arguably expected many sentences to reflect the results of the proper application of the Guidelines. See Mykytiuk, 415 F.3d at 607. The Mykytiuk court went on to note that not every sentence within the Guidelines should conclusively be deemed reasonable because such a scheme would run afoul of one of the primary holdings of Booker itself—that the Guidelines are merely advisory. See id. Nevertheless, because [t]he Guidelines remain an essential tool in creating a fair and uniform sentencing regime across the country, the court held that the most appropriate way to express the function of appellate review after Booker is to acknowledge that any sentence that is properly calculated under the Guidelines is entitled to a rebuttable presumption of reasonableness. Id. at 608; see also United States v. Lincoln, 413 F.3d 716, 717 (8th Cir.2005) (concluding that the defendant's sentence was within the guidelines range . . . and, as a result, we think that it is presumptively reasonable); United States v. Mares, 402 F.3d 511, 519 (5th Cir.2005) ([I]t will be rare for a reviewing court to say [a sentence within the Guidelines] is `unreasonable.'). 8 This court, too, has consistently emphasized, even post- Booker, that the purpose of the Guidelines [is] to promote uniformity in sentencing so as to prevent vastly divergent sentences for offenders with similar criminal histories and offenses. Gonzalez-Huerta, 403 F.3d at 738. Therefore, in light of this purpose, as well as the Supreme Court's instruction that district courts continue to consider the Guidelines after Booker, we join our sister circuits and hold that a sentence that is properly calculated under the Guidelines is entitled to a rebuttable presumption of reasonableness. This is a deferential standard that either the defendant or the government may rebut by demonstrating that the sentence is unreasonable when viewed against the other factors delineated in § 3553(a). See Mykytiuk, 415 F.3d at 608. 9 We note that this new standard of review—that of reasonableness—does not displace the oft-cited principle that in considering the district court's application of the Guidelines, we review factual findings for clear error and legal determinations de novo. See United States v. Serrata, 425 F.3d 886, 906 (10th Cir.2005); United States v. Bothun, 424 F.3d 582, 586 (7th Cir.2005) (Post- Booker we continue to review the court's application of the Sentencing Guidelines de novo and its factual findings for clear error.); United States v. Weisser, 417 F.3d 336, 346 (2d Cir.2005) (When reviewing a district court's application of the Guidelines in the post- Booker era, we examine questions of law de novo and issues of fact for clear error.). Rather, we first apply the latter two standards to determine whether the district court correctly determined the applicable Guidelines sentence under § 3553(a)(4)—at least when, as in this case, that issue is presented on appeal. Therefore, if we determine under the appropriate standard of review that the district court correctly determined the relevant Guidelines range, and if the defendant was subsequently sentenced to a term of imprisonment within that range, then the sentence is entitled to a rebuttable presumption of reasonableness on appeal. 10 A different approach, however, is warranted when the district court errs in applying the Guidelines. See United States v. Crawford, 407 F.3d 1174, 1178 (11th Cir.2005) ( Booker's requirement that district courts consult the Guidelines obliges the district court to calculate correctly the sentencing range prescribed by the Guidelines). In that situation, we must remand—without reaching the question of reasonableness—unless the error is harmless. Cf. United States v. Riccardi, 405 F.3d 852, 872 ([w]e assume for purposes of this case that if a district court makes a mistake of law in consulting and applying the Guidelines, this mistake would warrant a remand); United States v. Jeppeson, 333 F.3d 1180, 1182 (10th Cir.2003) (pre- Booker, finding harmless the district court's reliance on the improper Guidelines manual because relying on the correct manual would not have resulted in a different Guidelines range; declining to remand). This conclusion follows directly from the Supreme Court's decision in Booker to leave intact 18 U.S.C. § 3742(f)(1), 1 which mandates remand when the sentencing court errs in applying the Guidelines and the error affects the selection of the sentence imposed. See Williams v. United States, 503 U.S. 193, 203, 112 S.Ct. 1112, 117 L.Ed.2d 341 (1992); see also United States v. Cantrell, 433 F.3d 1269, 2006 WL 73483 at  (9th Cir.2006) (adopting this approach after Booker ); United States v. Mashek, 406 F.3d 1012, 1017 (8th Cir.2005) (same). Moreover, the reasonableness standard of review set forth in Booker necessarily encompasses both the reasonableness of the length of the sentence, as well as the method by which the sentence was calculated. See Booker, 125 S.Ct. at 766 (citing with approval United States v. Tsosie, 376 F.3d 1210, 1218-19 (10th Cir.2004) (noting that the reasonableness hinged on whether the decision was both reasoned and reasonable)). A sentence cannot, therefore, be considered reasonable if the manner in which it was determined was unreasonable, i.e., if it was based on an improper determination of the applicable Guidelines range. 11 In sum, today we adopt a two-step approach to the reasonableness standard of review announced in Booker. First, we must determine whether the district court considered the applicable Guidelines range, reviewing its legal conclusions de novo and its factual findings for clear error. A non-harmless error in this calculation entitles the defendant to a remand for resentencing. If, however, the district court properly considers the relevant Guidelines range and sentences the defendant within that range, the sentence is presumptively reasonable. The defendant may rebut this presumption by demonstrating that the sentence is unreasonable in light of the other sentencing factors laid out in § 3553(a). 12 With this in mind, we turn to Mr. Kristl's sentence. 13