Opinion ID: 3035363
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Validity of Appellants’ Appeal Waivers

Text: Pacheco and Gomez also argue that their appeal waivers are invalid; we review such claims de novo. United States v. Bynum, 362 F.3d 574, 583 (9th Cir. 2004). Gomez argues that his plea agreement should not have been accepted, so his appeal waiver is necessarily invalid. He argues that the district court should not have accepted the plea agreement into which he entered because it constituted impermissible “double counting” by stipulating upward adjustments and upward departures under the Guidelines based upon the same factors. [3] Gomez’s argument rests on the false premise that stipulated sentences must comport with the Guidelines. Even before Booker, this court accepted implicitly that stipulated sentences could fall outside the otherwise applicable Guideline range. See United States v. Mukai, 26 F.3d 953; 955-56 (9th Cir. 1994) (requiring the district court to accept or reject a sentencing arrangement outside of the Guidelines, but not modify it). We accept this proposition explicitly: as the Guidelines are advisory only, see Booker, 543 U.S. at ___, 125 S. Ct. at 764-65, there can be no reasonable argument that the court does not have the authority to accept a stipulated sentence that does not comport with them. Accord United States v. Cieslowski, 410 F.3d 353, 363 (7th Cir. 2005) (stating that “if there was any doubt whether a court may impose a sentence outside of the Sentencing Guideline range, that doubt has been erased by the Supreme Court’s recent decision in [Booker], which rendered the Sentencing Guidelines advisory only”); United States v. Bundy, 359 F. Supp. 2d 535, 538 (W.D. Va. 2005). [4] Moreover, it is within the sound discretion of the district court to reject or accept any plea agreement. See United 16682 UNITED STATES v. PACHECO-NAVARETTE States v. Barker, 681 F.2d 589, 592 (9th Cir. 1982). Gomez’s plea agreement was within statutory parameters and the record demonstrates that the district court considered and was satisfied with the reasons for the stipulation to the maximum possible sentence. We cannot, therefore, conclude that the district court abused that discretion. Pacheco argues that, as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision in Booker, he could not have waived his appeal right “knowingly and voluntarily,” which is required to uphold a waiver, see, e.g., United States v. Nguyen, 235 F.3d 1179, 1182 (9th Cir. 2000). This argument is precluded by our opinion in Cardenas, which held that the change in the law effected by Booker did not render unknowing or involuntary a prior appeal waiver. Cardenas, 405 F.3d at 1048.2 [5] Therefore, “our inquiry into the validity of the waivers is at an end.” Nguyen, 235 F.3d at 1182. The valid waivers bar appellants’ underlying challenges to their convictions and sentences, and we must dismiss their appeals. Id.