Opinion ID: 157341
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Jurisdiction to Resentence

Text: “We review de novo the district court’s legal determination that it possessed 5 jurisdiction to modify Defendant’s sentence.” United States v. Blackwell, 81 F.3d 945, 947 (10th Cir. 1996). A district court has no “inherent authority to modify a previously imposed sentence; it may do so only pursuant to statutory authorization.” United States v. Smartt, 129 F.3d 539, 540 (10th Cir. 1997). Title 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c) sets forth the instances in which a district court may correct or modify a previously imposed sentence. Id. Section 3582(c) authorizes a district court to correct or modify a sentence when: (1) it receives a motion from the Bureau of Prisons stating that extraordinary and compelling reasons warrant a reduction and the requested reduction is consistent with the applicable policy statements issued by the Sentencing Commission; (2) within seven days after imposing the sentence, the court acts under Fed. R. Crim. P. 35(c) to correct an arithmetical, technical, or other clear error present in the previously imposed sentence; or (3) a defendant has been sentenced based upon a sentencing range subsequently lowered by the Sentencing Commission. Although the district court in this case did not specify its authority for resentencing Defendant, Rule 35(c) provides the only plausible avenue by which the district court could properly correct or modify Defendant’s original sentence.3 Under Rule 35(c), the 3 Fed R. Crim. P. 36 provides an additional avenue through which a district court may correct clerical mistakes in judgments, orders or other parts of the record and other errors in the record resulting from oversight or omission. See United States v. Blackwell, 81 F.3d 945, 948 (10th Cir. 1996). The rule does not give a district court authority to substantively modify a sentence. Id. Here, the district court substantively modified Defendant’s sentence. 6 court, acting within seven days after sentencing,4 may “correct a sentence imposed as a result of arithmetical, technical, or other clear error.” The scope of the district court’s authority under Rule 35(c) is not broad. Instead, the rule is intended to be very narrow and to extend only to those cases in which an error or mistake has occurred in the sentence, that is errors which would most certainly result in remand of the case to the trial court for further action under Rule 35(a). The subdivision is not intended to afford the court the opportunity to reconsider the application or interpretation of the sentencing guidelines or for the court to simply change its mind about the appropriateness of the sentence. Fed. R. Crim. P. 35 advisory committee notes. The parties contest whether the district court acted to correct or modify Defendant’s original sentence within the seven-day period proscribed by Rule 35(c). The district court originally sentenced Defendant to twenty-four-months imprisonment on April 10, 1997. One day later, on April 11, 1997, Defendant filed a motion to reconsider the sentence. On May 2, 1997, the district court vacated the original sentence. On May 7, 1997, the district court resentenced Defendant to ten-months imprisonment. Under Rule 35(c), the district court had until April 17, 1997, to modify or correct Defendant’s sentence. Plainly viewed, the court missed the seven-day deadline. Defendant contends, however, that because he filed a motion for reconsideration, Rule 35(c)’s seven-day time period did not begin to run until the district court acted on 4 We have held, for purposes of Rule 35(c), that “sentence is imposed upon a criminal defendant when the [district] court orally pronounces sentence from the bench.” United States v. Townsend, 33 F.3d 1230, 1231 (10th Cir. 1994). 7 his motion. Relying on this logic, Defendant argues that the modification was timely. Defendant did not cite and our research did not locate any statutes or cases requiring courts to toll the seven-day period while a motion for reconsideration is pending. Defendant, in essence, urges us to create such a rule. We need not examine the wisdom of this proposed rule, however, because, regardless of whether the district court acted within Rule 35(c)’s seven-day time limit, it had no jurisdiction to substantively modify Defendant’s sentence. The district court’s authority to modify or correct Defendant’s April 10, 1997, sentence was limited to arithmetical, technical, or other clear errors. Fed. R. Crim. P. 35(c). The district court had no authority to resentence Defendant on a whim or because of dissatisfaction with the sentencing guidelines. The record clearly demonstrates that the district court’s grounds for resentencing did not fall within the ambit of Rule 35(c). At Defendant’s second sentencing hearing, the district court notified the government that it intended to resentence Defendant in accordance with an unnamed Ninth Circuit case. The government strenuously objected, arguing that such a sentence was clearly contrary to the sentencing guidelines. Ignoring the government’s objection, the district court stated: Well, here’s the thing . . . I have thought about the people that have been on