Opinion ID: 3051516
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Post-Rita and Carty reasonableness analysis

Text: [2] Crawford argues that the district court erred in imposing a sentence within the Guidelines after declaring its view that such sentences are presumptively reasonable. Though the Supreme Court in Rita held that appellate courts may presume that a sentence is reasonable when a district court judge’s dis- cretionary decision accords with the sentence the Sentencing Commission deems appropriate in most cases, the Court emphasized that such a presumption was limited to the standard on appeal. See Rita, 551 U.S. at ___, 127 S. Ct. at 2465 (“We repeat that the presumption before us is an appellate court presumption. Given our explanation in Booker that appellate ‘reasonableness’ review merely asks whether the trial court abused its discretion, the presumption applies only on appellate review.” (emphasis in original) (citing Booker, 543 U.S. at 259-60)); Gall, ___ U.S. at ___, 128 S. Ct. at 59697; Carty, ___ F.3d at ___ (the district court may not presume that the Guidelines range is reasonable). [3] The district court here did not presume the reasonableness of a Guidelines sentence with respect to Crawford’s case but, rather, presciently forecasted Rita’s holding, while citing to Booker and acknowledging other circuits that had already adopted the rule Rita would eventually espouse: [W]e all recognize that now, the sentencing guidelines are advisory. They’re not mandated. We are required to consult them, calculate—the career offender provision under Chapter 4 of the guidelines is advisory. . . . But as I’ve said before and I’ll say now, in view of the Booker/Fan Fan cases, which require us to look at the guidelines, consult them, calculate the appropriate guideline sentence, that the standard of review on appeal is reasonable if the UNITED STATES v. CRAWFORD 3207 court feels that—and some of the circuits have said —specifically held that a guideline sentence, unless there’s some real reason to vary from it, is presumptively reasonable; and I think that that makes sense. This statement must be viewed in the context of the entire sentencing hearing. We must distinguish the district court’s comment on some circuits’ adoption of the presumption for appellate review, a statement made in passing, from the thorough process the court went through in determining the appropriateness of Crawford’s sentence, which was done within the framework established by Booker and reinforced by Rita, Gall, and Kimbrough. See Kimbrough, ___ U.S. at ___, 128 S. Ct. at 574 (the Guidelines are “the ‘starting point and the initial benchmark’ ” (quoting Gall, ___ U.S. at ___, 128 S. Ct. at 596)); Gall, ___ U.S. at ___, 128 S. Ct. at 59697 n.6 (the Guidelines are to be kept in mind throughout the process); Carty, ___ F.3d at ___ (all sentencing proceedings are to begin by determining the applicable Guidelines range, which must be calculated correctly, and the Guidelines should be kept in mind throughout the process). The district court neither misapprehended the sentencing framework nor adopted a presumption of reasonableness.