Opinion ID: 1362580
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Post-Rita Sentencing Review

Text: Since United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005), this Court has repeatedly stated that we review a district court's sentencing determination for reasonableness, which is guided by the statutory factors delineated in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). See, e.g., United States v. Kristl, 437 F.3d 1050, 1053 (10th Cir. 2006). In the Supreme Court's recently issued opinion Rita v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 2456, 168 L.Ed.2d 203 (2007), the majority referred to reasonableness review as an abuse of discretion standard. See id. at 2465 (Given our explanation in Booker that appellate `reasonableness' review merely asks whether the trial court abused its discretion, the presumption [of reasonableness applied to a within-Guidelines sentence] applies only on appellate review.). We write now, in some detail, to make clear that the Supreme Court's reference in Rita to reasonableness review as an abuse-of-discretion standard does nothing to change the appellate reasonableness standard this Circuit has applied since Booker. As we explain, our case law post- Booker has consistently applied the principle that reasonableness, as defined by § 3553(a), is the measure of the appropriate use of a district court's discretion; or, put differently, we review a district court's sentence for abuse of discretion, asking whether it is reasonable under the § 3553(a) factors. Our application of the reasonableness standard of review since Booker has necessarily been a review of a district court's decision for abuse of discretion. For example, because a legal standard based on reasonableness is inherently fact dependent, see Cooter & Gell v. Hartmarx Corp., 496 U.S. 384, 401-05, 110 S.Ct. 2447, 110 L.Ed.2d 359 (1990), we have implicitly acknowledged that we employ an abuse-of-discretion standard by reviewing a district court's factual findings for clear error, United States v. Valtierra-Rojas, 468 F.3d 1235, 1241 n. 8 (10th Cir.2006). Moreover, as the dissent recognizes, Booker itself implicitly equates reasonableness review with review for abuse of discretion, and Rita simply makes that equivalence explicit. In short, Rita says nothing new about the standard of review. But even though we accord deference to a district court's sentencing decision, it is clear that district courts must apply, and our appellate review is guided by, the factors set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). See United States v. Pruitt, 487 F.3d 1298, 1303 (10th Cir.2007) (The district court must consider the sentencing factors set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) when imposing a sentence.); Kristl, 437 F.3d at 1053 (noting that appellate reasonableness review is guided by the factors set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)). Because reasonableness in sentencing is defined by statutory factors, it necessarily involves legal determinations. Consequently, even if we defer to lower courts' application of the factors, we cannot do so when they commit legal errors. See, e.g., United States v. Soussi, 316 F.3d 1095, 1108 (10th Cir.2002) (A district court abuses its discretion if it makes an error of law.). Thus, a district court may abuse its discretion when, for example, it gives one statutory factor too much weight, see, e.g., United States v. Cage, 451 F.3d 585, 595 (10th Cir.2006), or expressly disregards another, see, e.g., United States v. Hildreth, 485 F.3d 1120, 1130 (10th Cir.2007). That is, sentencing courts may not ignore applicable case law interpreting reasonableness under § 3553(a), and this Court may not ignore a district court's errors in interpretation. Cooter & Gell, 496 U.S. at 402, 110 S.Ct. 2447 (noting that an abuse-of-discretion standard does not preclude the appellate court's correction of a district court's legal errors). In short, in determining whether a sentence is reasonable, we defer to the district court's exercise of discretion within the bounds of reasonableness: [T]he fact that there is inevitably a range of sentences that could be held reasonable means that our affirmance of a sentence will necessarily defer, in effect, to the district court's exercise of discretion in choosing a particular sentence within that range.  United States v. Sanchez-Juarez, 446 F.3d 1109, 1117 (10th Cir.2006) (emphasis added). The fact that a range of reasonable sentences exists, beyond which we will not defer to a district court, makes clear that there are definite limits on a sentencing court's exercise of discretion. See Rita, 127 S.Ct. at 2466-67 (In sentencing, as in other areas, district judges at times make mistakes that are substantive. . . . Circuit courts exist to correct such mistakes when they occur.). Our appellate review cannot merely rubber stamp the district court's decision. Rather than announcing a new or revised standard of review, Rita simply affirmed the appellate courts' application of a presumption of reasonableness to within-Guidelines sentences on appellate review. Id. at 2462; see also id. at 2463 ([T]he presumption reflects the fact that, by the time an appeals court is considering a within-Guidelines sentence on review, both the sentencing judge and the Sentencing Commission will have reached the same conclusion as to the proper sentence in the particular case.). Indeed, the Court's holding in Rita was simply that appellate courts may employ a presumption of reasonableness when reviewing procedurally proper within-Guidelines sentences. The purpose of the Court's reference in Rita to reasonableness review as an abuse-of-discretion standard was to emphasize that the presumption of reasonableness is an appellate presumption (i.e., sentencing courts may not apply it): We repeat that the presumption before us is an appellate court presumption. Given our emphasis in Booker that appellate `reasonableness' review merely asks whether the trial court abused its discretion, the presumption applies only on appellate review. Id. at 2465. In other words, the Court noted a settled proposition (i.e., that appellate `reasonableness' review merely asks whether the trial court abused its discretion) in order to emphasize a logical conclusion that may be inferred from it (i.e., that the presumption applies only on appellate review). To turn the Court's statement regarding the appellate nature of the presumption into a holding regarding the standard of review, the dissent takes the statement out of context and expands upon it by relying on Justice Stevens's concurring opinion, in which Justice Ginsburg joined. In relying on Justice Stevens's concurrence, the dissent misunderstands our duty to apply Supreme Court precedent. Justices Stevens and Ginsburg fully joined the majority opinion (not merely the judgment), and the concurrence garnered only two votes. Whatever compromises may have been required to bring Justices Stevens and Ginsburg on board the majority were made and are reflected in the text of the majority opinion. As the concurrence has no legal weight, we will not read it as a supplement to the Supreme Court's clear majority opinion. Finally, we note that, while the Rita Court also made clear that a sentence falling outside the Guidelines is not entitled to a presumption of unreasonableness, id. at 2467, the applicable Guidelines sentence and the policy statements of the Sentencing Commission nevertheless remain statutory factors that the district court must consider. See 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(4), (5). As the Supreme Court explicitly recognized in Booker, the sentencing factors contained in § 3553(a) delimit a district court's discretion. 543 U.S. at 264, 125 S.Ct. 738 (disagreeing with the view that, after Booker, a sentencing court has the same discretion it possessed prior to the Sentencing Act). Because the Guidelines are a factor under § 3553(a)(4) and (5), a sentencing court abuses its discretion when it does not consider them. Booker, 543 U.S. at 264, 125 S.Ct. 738 (The district courts, while not bound to apply the Guidelines, must consult those Guidelines and take them into account when sentencing.); see also Cage, 451 F.3d at 594 ( Booker does not place original sentencing decisions entirely in the discretion of trial judges; the Guidelines as an expression of the political will of Congresscontinue to assert advisory influence on those decisions.). In recognizing the continued importance of the Guidelines, we do not treat them as nearly mandatory, as the dissent suggests. Indeed, we emphasize that a court may, in its discretion, conclude that a non-Guidelines sentence best serves the purposes of sentencing under § 3553(a). But if a court exercises its discretion to disregard, or give little weight to, the Guideline factors, § 3553(a)(4), (5), in crafting a sentence, it must find reasonable justification for doing so in the remaining § 3553(a) factors. A court's conclusion that the Guidelines are simply wrong or an inadequate reflection of the statutory sentencing purposes is an unreasonable application of the § 3553(a) factors unless the court can justify the sentence imposed in light of the facts of the particular case considered under § 3553(a).