Opinion ID: 77676
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Ex Post Facto Application of Booker at Resentencing

Text: 24 Amedeo also argues that the district court's ex post facto application of Booker to his detriment at resentencing violated his due process rights. We review de novo a defendant's claim that his sentence violated ex post facto principles. United States v. Thomas, 446 F.3d 1348, 1350 (11th Cir. 2006). 25 As stated above, in Booker, the Supreme Court held that its remedial holding, making the Guidelines advisory, was to be applied to cases pending on direct review. Booker, 543 U.S. at 268, 125 S.Ct. at 769. In United States v. Duncan, 400 F.3d 1297, 1306 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ____, 126 S.Ct. 432, 163 L.Ed.2d 329 (2005), this court rejected the defendant's argument that the retroactive application of Booker to his case would increase his sentence beyond that authorized by the jury's verdict, thereby operating as an ex post facto law in violation of his due process rights. Id. at 1307. We reasoned that although mandatory Guidelines were in place at the time of the defendant's criminal conduct, the law of this Circuit then recognized the U.S. Code as the source of the maximum sentence. Id. at 1308 (citations omitted). As such, this court held that the defendant had sufficient warning to satisfy due process concerns. Id. Here, Amedeo contends that Duncan is not controlling because he preserved his objection below, entitling him to de novo review, whereas in Duncan, the issue was considered on plain error review. He also argues that this court's Amedeo I mandate left the district court with an exact Guidelines calculation that it should have imposed and that Booker was applied to his detriment. He further argues that because he pleaded guilty, he did not have any realistic notice or expectation that he could be sentenced to 10 years. We are unpersuaded. 26 First, Amedeo's attempt to distinguish Duncan as a plain error case is misplaced, as it relies on a portion of the Duncan opinion regarding the sentencing court's constitutional error of applying the Guidelines in a mandatory fashion based on judicial factfinding. See Duncan, 400 F.3d at 1299, 1304. The portion of the opinion rejecting the defendant's ex post facto claim held that there was no ex post facto /due process violation, and thus, no error in this regard. Id. at 1307-08. Moreover, we have applied both the reasoning and holding of Duncan in cases where the fair warning/due process issue was not before us on plain error review. See, e.g., Thomas, 446 F.3d at 1354-55. Next, as discussed above, Booker was an intervening change in the law making mandatory application of the Guidelines unlawful. Finally, the terms of Amedeo's plea deal made clear that the district court had the authority to impose a sentence up to the statutory maximum of 40 years. Thus, Amedeo had sufficient warning to satisfy ex post facto and due process concerns. See Duncan, 400 F.3d at 1308. We therefore conclude that the retroactive application of Booker to Amedeo's case did not violate his rights.