Opinion ID: 76818
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Second Issue — Vested Downward Departure at Re-Sentencing Issue

Text: 41 Without citing any authority, Grant claims that Section 5G1.1(b) does not apply to cases on remand in which the defendant has already been granted a downward departure from the statutory minimum. The obvious invalidity of this claim may explain why it has not been heretofore asserted and decided. 42 Grant claims that once the district court made the decision to departure downward at his initial sentencing, it became no longer a sentencing option, but an accomplished historical fact, and, starting over as if the downward departure had not yet vested would, in essence, punish Grant for having successfully challenged his sentence. See North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969). His argument overlooks the fact that his resulting sentence is half that first imposed. 43 Grant does acknowledge that the law of this circuit, as well as that of six other circuits is, as a general matter, that when a sentence is remanded on appeal, the sentencing process commences again de novo. See United States v. Stinson, 97 F.3d 466, 469 (11th Cir.1996). The vacatur of Grant's original sentence voids the sentence in its entirety and the slate is wiped clean. Id. The district court was free to reconstruct the sentence utilizing any of the sentence components. Id. (citations omitted). Here the district court properly started at the statutory minimum and departed downward. See also United States v. Head, 178 F.3d 1205, 1206-08 (11th Cir. 1999).