Opinion ID: 764418
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Resentencing Authority

Text: 11 Triestman argues that the district court lacked the power to resentence him on his unchallenged drug convictions in connection with his successful § 2241 motion. In support of this argument, he invokes 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(B), which authorizes courts to resentence defendants when, inter alia, expressly permitted by statute. 2 He contends that neither § 2241 nor any related provision includes such an express authorization. 12 In support of his argument, Triestman relies heavily on a contrast between the statutory language governing remedies in § 2255 and § 2241 motions. Triestman concedes that courts have express authority to modify terms of imprisonment under § 2255, but notes that this power derives from the language of § 2255 itself, which states: 13 If the court finds [on a § 2255 motion] that ... the sentence imposed was not authorized by law or otherwise open to collateral attack ... the court shall vacate and set the judgment aside and shall discharge the prisoner or resentence him or grant a new trial or correct the sentence as may appear appropriate. 14 (Emphases added); see also Gordils, 117 F.3d at 104 (reading § 2255 as expressly permitting modification of sentences under § 3582(c)). The remedies available in § 2241 motions are, by contrast, governed by § 2243, which states only that courts entertaining an application for a writ of habeas corpus shall summarily hear and determine the facts and dispose of the matter as law and justice require.  (Emphasis added.) Triestman contends that because § 2243 does not explicitly authorize courts to modify or correct a sentence, or to resentence a defendant, it does not expressly permit[ ] courts to modify a term of imprisonment, as is required by § 3582(c)(1)(B). We disagree. 15 Triestman's argument would prove too much. A very common reason for bringing habeas petitions has been to challenge a federal court's imposition of sentences that violate the Constitution or federal law. Courts hearing § 2241 motions have traditionally had the power to vacate or reduce such sentences when necessary to cure these kinds of defects. See, e.g., Holiday v. Johnston, 313 U.S. 342, 349, 61 S.Ct. 1015, 85 L.Ed. 1392 (1941) (His [habeas] remedy is to apply for vacation of the sentence and a resentence in conformity to the statute under which he was adjudged guilty.). If, however, § 3582(c)(1)(B) were read as Triestman proposes, then that statute, which was passed in 1984, would effectively repeal the courts' power even to reduce challenged sentences in § 2241 motions. Such a reading would conflict with well-settled canons of statutory interpretation, which counsel against findings of implicit repeal in the habeas context. See, e.g., Felker v. Turpin, 518 U.S. 651, 659-61, 116 S.Ct. 2333, 135 L.Ed.2d 827 (1996) (noting, in the habeas context, that [r]epeals by implication are not favored); Jean-Baptiste v. Reno, 144 F.3d 212, 219 (2d Cir.1998) (noting that repeal by implication of the right to petition for habeas corpus relief is disfavored). 16 There is, moreover, a less problematic way to read § 3582(c)(1)(B). Rather than mandating the use of explicit terms like resentencing or correction of a sentence before a term of imprisonment can be modified, § 3582(c)(1)(B) might be read as requiring only that a statute contain an express grant of remedial power, and that this power be broad enough to permit the resentencing in question. Section 3582(c)(1)(B) would then be read not as repealing any pre-existing statutory grants of power, but as prohibiting courts from resentencing prisoners without such a grant. The legislative history of § 3582 contains only one reference to § 3582(c)(1)(B), but this reference is illuminating. After describing § 3582 as allowing for three safety valves in which sentence modifications are permitted, the Senate Report on the Crime Control Act of 1984 explains that [s]ubsection (c)(1)(B) simply notes the authority to modify a sentence if modification is permitted by statute. S.Rep. No. 98-225 (1984), reprinted in 1984 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3182, 3304 (emphases added). Read in light of the canon of construction that disfavors findings of implicit repeal in the habeas context, this history suggests that § 3582(c)(1)(B) was intended to recognize and preserve pre-existing statutory grants of remedial power in the habeas context rather than to repeal or limit them. We therefore adopt this latter reading. 17 Because § 2243' § authorization to dispose of the matter as law and justice require is broad enough to allow for resentencing in some circumstances--i.e., such as when necessary to cure a constitutional defect--we read § 2243 as containing an express grant of statutory power under § 3582(c)(1)(B) to resentence in those circumstances. The more precise question in this case is whether this power allowed the district court to resentence Triestman on his unchallenged drug convictions after he successfully challenged his related § 924(c) conviction. 18 In United States v. Gordils, 117 F.3d 99 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 118 S.Ct. 430, 139 L.Ed.2d 330 (1997), we recently answered an analogous question in the § 2255 context in the affirmative. In Gordils, much as in this case, a defendant was convicted of multiple drug trafficking offenses, and of using or carrying a firearm, in violation of § 924(c). See id. at 100. He was then sentenced to two consecutive sentences, one for his drug-related violations and one for his § 924(c) violation. When calculating the total offense level for the drug trafficking counts, the sentencing court did not add any points for possession of a firearm because this conduct was punished separately by means of the § 924(c) conviction. Because the defendant had only possessed, and had not actively employed, the firearm in question, he was able to bring a successful § 2255 challenge to his § 924(c) conviction after the Supreme Court rendered its decision in Bailey. See id. at 101. 19 The district court vacated Gordils's § 924(c) conviction, but, much as in this case, resentenced him on his drug trafficking offense and added 2 points under U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(b)(1) for the firearm possession. Gordils appealed, arguing that under § 3582(c), the court lacked the power to resentence him on this unchallenged conviction because § 2255 only expressly permits resentencing in the context of a challenged conviction. Id. We rejected Gordils's argument, noting that 20 at least in the context of a truly interdependent sentence such as where a mandatory consecutive sentence affects the applicable offense level [on an unchallenged but related sentence] under the guidelines--the language of § 2255 provides sufficient statutory authority for a district court to exercise its jurisdiction to resentence defendants as may appear appropriate. 21 Id. at 104. We then held, more precisely, that it is appropriate for a court to resentence a defendant on an underlying, unchallenged drug trafficking conviction where, pursuant to Bailey v. United States, 516 U.S. 137, 116 S.Ct. 501, 133 L.Ed.2d 472 (1995), the defendant has successfully challenged a related firearm conviction in a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 petition. Id. at 100, 104. 22 Other than the particular habeas statutes under which Gordils and Triestman proceeded, we find no meaningful difference between these cases that would affect the courts' respective resentencing powers. We also see no reason to view a court's remedial powers more narrowly in a § 2241 motion than in a § 2255 motion. See, e.g., Swain v. Pressley, 430 U.S. 372, 381, 97 S.Ct. 1224, 51 L.Ed.2d 411 (1977) (We have ... construed the remedy created by 28 U.S.C. § 2255 as the exact equivalent of the pre-existing [§ 2241] habeas corpus remedy.). We therefore hold that the district court had the authority under § 2243 to dispose of the matter as law and justice require, and that this authority included the power to resentence Triestman to the overall term that he would have received on his interdependent sentencing package absent his unlawful § 924(c) conviction.