Opinion ID: 677661
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: arturo's sentence

Text: 46 Finally, Arturo contends that our reversal of the CCE conviction requires us to vacate the conspiracy convictions. This argument lacks merit. Arturo bases his argument on the fact that the district court did not issue alternative sentences as this court suggested in United States v. Medina, 940 F.2d 1247, 1253 (9th Cir.1991). However, Arturo misinterprets Medina. Medina recognizes the dilemma a district court faces when it must sentence a defendant on both CCE and lesser-included conspiracy counts. If the district court itself vacates the conspiracy convictions, and the court of appeals subsequently reverses the CCE conviction, the district court is then powerless to reinstate the lesser-included conspiracy convictions, even though they may be valid. Id. Hence, we devised a suggested course of action for the district court. Medina proposed that in a situation such as the one presented here, the district court should impose a sentence on the CCE count and an alternative sentence on the lesser-included convictions. Id. 47 Medina recommended the following procedure. The district court should impose a sentence on the CCE count and vacate the lesser-included conspiracy counts, subject to the condition that the CCE count is not reversed on appeal. In the alternative, it should then impose a sentence on the lesser-included counts, conditioned upon a reversal of the CCE count on appeal. Then, depending upon the outcome of the appeal, either sentence could be imposed automatically without requiring remand. Id. 48 In Medina, the CCE conviction was affirmed and the conspiracy convictions were vacated. Because we are reversing the CCE conviction, double jeopardy concerns are no longer implicated, and thus the conspiracy convictions can stand. See id. at 1252-53. Medina 's proposed course of action in no way suggests that should the district court fail to impose alternative sentences, the conspiracy convictions cannot stand if the CCE conviction is reversed. Indeed, the proposed method is more efficient and it merely avoids a needless remand. Id. But, even though the district court did not impose alternative sentences in this case, we are not precluded from affirming the conspiracy convictions even though we are reversing the CCE conviction. The fact that the district court did not employ Medina 's proposed course of action just means that remand is necessary when it would not have otherwise been required had the district court followed the alternative sentencing procedure. Accordingly, we reverse Arturo's CCE conviction (count 1), but we affirm both his conspiracy convictions (counts 2 & 9) and his marijuana possession conviction (count 7).