Opinion ID: 714872
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The court's failure to inform Defendant of its consideration of the wiretap affidavit

Text: 31 Second, Defendant argues that he was not given notice of information to be relied upon in determining his sentence as required by Fed.R.Crim.P. 32(c)(3)(A). At a post-sentencing hearing, Judge Brett informed Defendant's attorney for the first time that he had considered the fact that the government had thought enough of McGowan's credibility to include information from him in an affidavit for a wiretap in another criminal proceeding. 32 Rule 32(c)(3)(A) requires that the defendant be apprised of information to be relied upon in determining the sentence. Before imposing sentence, the rule requires that: 33 If the court has received information excluded from the presentence report under subdivision (b)(5) the court--in lieu of making that information available--must summarize it in writing, if the information will be relied on in determining sentence. The court must also give the defendant and the defendant's counsel a reasonable opportunity to comment on that information. 34 However, Defendant has not shown that this information was excluded from the Presentence Report under Rule 32(b)(5), which deals only with the exclusion of diagnostic opinions, sources of information obtained upon a promise of confidentiality, or other information which, if disclosed, might result in harm. Accordingly, the disclosure requirements of Rule 32(c)(3)(A) were not technically violated. Nevertheless, Rule 32(c)(1) provides that: 35 At the sentencing hearing, the court must afford counsel for the defendant and for the Government an opportunity to comment ... on other matters relating to the appropriate sentence. 36 Here, counsel for the government and for the Defendant were not given the opportunity to comment on this supplemental indicia of McGowan's credibility until after the sentencing had occurred. Thus, it is clear that the district court erred in failing to follow Rule 32(c)(1). 37 However, we consider this error harmless, although we apply a different test than the standard we applied to the court's error in concluding that Defendant waived his Fifth Amendment right by pleading guilty. Because the court's failure to follow Rule 32 did not rise to the level of a constitutional error, we need only decide whether the error had a substantial influence on the sentencing determination or leaves one in grave doubt as to whether it had such effect. See Kotteakos v. United States, 328 U.S. 750, 765, 66 S.Ct. 1239, 1248, 90 L.Ed. 1557 (1946). See also Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(a) (stating that [a]ny error, defect, irregularity or variance which does not affect substantial rights shall be disregarded.). 38 Defendant has failed to prove that the court's failure to follow Rule 32 had a substantial influence on the ultimate sentence. In judging McGowan's credibility, the court placed the greatest significance on the fact that McGowan and Stickman corroborated each other. The court merely listed the McGowan affidavit in the other criminal action among a number of factors it considered in judging the credibility of McGowan, factors which included McGowan's self-incriminating testimony and statements of three law enforcement officers describing McGowan as reliable. Furthermore, the Defendant learned of the court's use of this information at a post-sentencing hearing conducted the same day the sentence was imposed. Neither then, nor on appeal, does Defendant argue that he could have challenged the use of the McGowan affidavit in a manner that would have impaired McGowan's credibility in the eyes of the court. Instead, Defendant fails to allege any facts or law that suggest the court's opinion of McGowan would have changed if Defendant had been aware of the McGowan affidavit prior to sentencing. 13 We will not reverse such an error when the Defendant fails to prove any prejudice whatsoever resulting from the error. 39