Opinion ID: 2971476
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Objections to PSR

Text: Washington finally argues that the district court erred by not sustaining his objections to specific findings in the PSR related to his role in the drug conspiracy and the quantity of 8 United States v. Washington (02-5876) United States v. Gateskill (02-6490) cocaine involved. Washington claims that factual errors related to these issues exposed him to a greater sentencing guideline range than what otherwise should have been enumerated in the PSR had his objections been sustained.1 This claim is meritless. Washington pled guilty to a drug conspiracy charge that carried a twenty-year statutory minimum term. He was therefore required by statute to serve at least 240 months for the drug offense. Assuming arguendo that the PSR erroneously noted Washington’s leadership role in the conspiracy and the quantity of drugs involved, the error would be harmless in light of the fact that this Court will not address an alleged error in the offense level if the mandatory minimum penalty trumps the guideline range. See United States v. Gaitan-Acevedo, 148 F.3d 577, 595 (6th Cir. 1998); United States v. Gaines, 122 F.3d 324, 330 (6th Cir. 1997)(“When Congress and the Sentencing Commission disagree on matters of sentencing policy, Congress trumps.”); United States v. Rodriguez-Razo, 962 F.2d 1418, 1420 (9th Cir. 1992)(“If the error resulted from a misapplication of the Sentencing Guidelines, but did not affect the district court’s choice of the sentence imposed, the error is harmless and remand 1 Washington claims he would have been subject to a sentencing guideline range of 121 to 151 months imprisonment if his objections to the PSR were sustained. (Appellant Brief, p. 31) Instead, the PSR enumerated a sentencing guideline range of 235 to 293 months imprisonment. (JA 742) 9 United States v. Washington (02-5876) United States v. Gateskill (02-6490) is not required.”); UNITED STATES SENTENCING GUIDELINES § 5G1.1(b) (“Where a statutorily required minimum sentence is greater than the maximum of the applicable guideline range, the statutorily required minimum sentence shall be the guideline sentence.”).