Opinion ID: 1443313
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Ibn Williams

Text: Ibn Williams was charged with possession with intent to distribute more than five grams of cocaine base in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). He pled guilty on March 21, 2007. The PSR calculated 129.76 grams of cocaine base, putting his offense level at 32. With a two-level increase for possessing a dangerous weapon and a three-level decrease for acceptance of responsibility, the total offense level was 31. His criminal history category was I, putting the sentence range at 108-135 months. At the sentencing on May 30, 2007, the judge sentenced Williams to 108 months in prison, followed by four years of supervised release, plus a $100 criminal assessment. On appeal, Williams argues (1) that the sentence was unreasonable and the judge should be permitted to reject the 100-to-1 ratio, and (2) that the court used the term advisory with respect to the guidelines but in reality treated them as mandatory. Williams claims that the sentencing judge only gave lip service to the advisory nature of the sentencing guidelines, violating Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005). Williams fails, however, to produce adequate support for this argument. The sentencing judge correctly and consistently referred to the guidelines as advisory. He also went through the appropriate steps, calculating the guideline range and then considering individual factors with respect to Williams. He concluded that the given sentence was reasonable and necessary to hold the defendant accountable for his serious conduct, to serve as a deterrent to him, to protect the community from further criminality on his part, and to achieve parity with the sentences of similarly situated defendants. . . . The majority of the examples Williams cites in support of his position are the judge's references to the 100-to-1 crack ratio. This, however, is not at all persuasive, since prior to Kimbrough, under our precedent, that aspect of the guidelines was effectively mandatory and district court deviations would have been futile. Therefore, the comments from the sentencing judge were not surprising and cannot now reasonably be used to argue he did not, generally speaking, properly treat the guidelines as advisory. (With respect to any specific failing to treat the ratio as advisory, our decision, discussed below, regarding the ratio and Kimbrough adequately take care of that concern.) Since Williams has failed to point to anything persuasive in the record before us to make his point, he cannot prevail on this issue.