Opinion ID: 1238399
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Corrected advisory range

Text: As set forth above, the district court erred in imposing two-level increases in Arhebamen's offense level for obstruction of justice, pursuant to § 5K2.0; for disruption of a governmental function by lying to his physicians in an attempt to postpone sentencing, pursuant to § 5K2.7; and for moving to Arizona, pursuant to § 5K2.0. These errors amount to significant procedural error in the form of an improper calculation of the Guidelines range. See Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 128 S.Ct. 586, 597, 169 L.Ed.2d 445 (2007). The corrected offense level in this case is thus 22 (instead of 28), with the criminal history category remaining at VI. This results in an advisory Guidelines range of 84 to 105 months of imprisonment. Where a Guidelines departure provision has been erroneously applied, the resulting sentence may still be procedurally reasonable if the district court has adequately explained it by reference to the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors. In such a case, the sentence would be unreasonable as a departure but reasonable as a variance from the advisory Guidelines range. See, e.g., United States v. Erpenbeck, 532 F.3d 423, 441 (6th Cir.2008) (The district court's error [in departing upward under U.S.S.G. § 5K2.3] is harmless ... [where the district court] did not have to base the 65-month enhancement on the Guidelines-departure factors because the sentence was sufficiently justified based upon the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors alone.) But the district court here did not independently explain the 152-month sentence by reference to the § 3553(a) factors, an explanation required by the Supreme Court in Gall. See 128 S.Ct. at 597. Instead, the court simply incorporated its analysis from the original pre- Booker Guidelines-based sentence. The court's only statement with respect to § 3553(a) was the following: Pursuant to § 3553(a), this Court is to impose a sentence sufficient, but not greater than necessary, to reflect the seriousness of the offense, to promote respect for the law, and to provide just punishment for the offense; to afford adequate deterrence to criminal conduct; to protect the public from further crimes of the defendant; and to provide the defendant with needed educational or vocational training, medical care, or other correctional treatment in the most effective manner.... Based on the purposes set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(2), and the considerations of § 3553(a)(1), & (3)-(7), the Court imposes upon the Defendant a `total punishment' of a term of imprisonment of 152 months. With the above perfunctory recitation and the incorporation of the initial sentencing order, the district court again imposed a 152-month sentence, which was within the Guidelines range as calculated by the court. But, as stated above, the 152-month sentence in fact amounts to a 47-month upward variance from the properly calculated Guidelines range of 84 to 105 months of imprisonment. The dissent, applying harmless-error review, appears to be convinced that the district court would nonetheless impose an identical sentence in the form of a variance in lieu of a Guidelines departure. (Dissenting Op. at 307-08) We decline to make that assumption, and in any event cannot review the reasonableness of such a result without the district court providing the necessary § 3553(a) analysis to support a variance in the first instance. See United States v. Johnson, 467 F.3d 559, 564 (6th Cir.2006) (To establish harmless error such that this Court lets stand a defendant's sentence in spite of errors at trial or sentencing below, ... the government must demonstrate to this Court with certainty that the error at sentencing did not cause[] the defendant to receive a more severe sentence. (citations and internal quotation marks omitted)). As a result, we vacate Arhebamen's sentence and remand the case to the district court for resentencing. The court should consider the correct advisory range and adequately explain its application of the § 3553(a) factors in imposing a new sentence. Although Arhebamen requests resentencing before a different district judge to preserve the appearance of justice, we do not believe that such a measure is necessary in this case. See, e.g., United States v. Elfgeeh, 515 F.3d 100, 137 (2d Cir.2008) (As a general rule, even when a sentencing judge has been shown to have held erroneous views or made incorrect findings,... resentencing before a different judge is required only in the rare instance in which the judge's fairness or the appearance of the judge's fairness is seriously in doubt. (citation omitted) (alteration in original)). The record in the present case gives us no reason to question the fairness of either of the district judges below.