Opinion ID: 39694
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The 2001 Sentencing Guidelines

Text: 16 Olis contends that the district court erred by using the 2001 version of the Sentencing Guidelines, rather than the 2000 version, to calculate his sentence. Courts are required to use the Guidelines Manual in effect on the date that the offense of conviction was committed. U.S.S.G. § 1B1.11(b)(1). The guidelines add, If a defendant is convicted of two offenses, one before and one after the effective date of the revised edition of the guidelines, the revised edition applies to both offenses. U.S.S.G. § 1B1.11(b)(3). 17 The jury convicted Olis for crimes that were committed during the years 2000 through early 2002. The jury found in Count 2 that the securities fraud in which Olis participated was coextensive with the conspiracy, and in Count 6 that Olis committed or aided and abetted wire fraud on March 13, 2002, the date that Dynegy's 2001 Form 10-K was electronically filed with the SEC. The dates of these offenses plainly fall after the effective date of the November 2001 revisions. 18 The jury additionally convicted Olis of the Count 1 conspiracy that lasted from on or about August 2000 through April 2002. This court has held that conspiracy is a continuing offense and that [s]o long as there is evidence that the conspiracy continued after the effective date of the [amendments to the] guidelines, the Ex Post Facto Clause is not violated. United States v. Buckhalter, 986 F.2d 875, 880 (5th Cir.1993). Moreover, unless a conspirator effectively withdraws from the conspiracy, he is to be sentenced under the amendments to the guidelines, even if he did not commit an act in furtherance of the conspiracy after the date of the new guidelines, or did not know of acts committed by other co-conspirators after the date of the new guidelines, where it was foreseeable that the conspiracy would continue past the effective date of the amendments. United States v. Devine, 934 F.2d 1325, 1332 (5th Cir.1991). Devine applied to a defendant whose criminal conspiracy straddled the period before and after the effective date of the Guidelines, but its reasoning also applies where, as here, the conspiracy continued into the period covered by revised Guidelines. Olis never withdrew from the conspiracy. 19 Because three of the counts are governed by the 2001 amendments to the guidelines, the other three counts (mail fraud committed in April 2001 and wire fraud committed in August and October 2001) are also controlled by the November 2001 amendments. 20