Opinion ID: 3039705
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Erroneous Guidelines

Text: Calculations Brown and Wise also argue that the District Court committed procedural error by incorrectly calculating the applicable Guidelines ranges. Effective November 1, 2007, the United States Sentencing Commission adopted Amendment 706, which modified the Guidelines ranges applicable to crack cocaine offenses. In general, the effect of Amendment 706 is to decrease by two levels the base offense levels for crack cocaine offenses.8 See U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1 (Nov. 1, 2007); U.S.S.G. Supp. to App’x C, Amend. 706. Brown and Wise argue that because the District Court employed the Guidelines that were in effect on the day they were sentenced, and because the Guidelines were amended during the pendency of their appeals, the District Court’s Guidelines calculation amounts to procedural error. Their argument is unpersuasive. Since Booker, the Guidelines are one factor among several listed in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) that courts must consider in determining the appropriate sentence to impose on a defendant. Gall, 128 S. Ct. at 596-97. Specifically, Procedure 32(i)(2) and (3)(B). (Wise Br. at 34.) The flaw in that argument is that he had no right to a hearing. The provisions of Rule 32 that he cites do not grant any such right but say instead that “[t]he court may permit the parties to introduce evidence on the objections” they may have to the presentence report and that the court must rule on objections or, for the reasons described in the rule, determine that no ruling is necessary. 8 Amendment 706 was itself amended by Amendment 711 in ways not relevant to this appeal. 22 § 3553(a)(4)(A)(ii) instructs that a court should consider the Guidelines that “are in effect on the date the defendant is sentenced.” 9 That statutory command has been incorporated into the Guidelines themselves, which state that “[t]he court shall use the Guidelines Manual in effect on the date that the defendant is sentenced.” U.S.S.G. § 1B1.11(a). The Guidelines are no longer mandatory, but that does not render optional § 3553(a)(4)’s direction to consider the Guidelines that are in effect on the date of sentencing. Accordingly, we will continue to expect that district courts will calculate the applicable sentencing ranges using the Guidelines extant at the time of sentencing, and we will continue to review the propriety of a sentence based on those same Guidelines. United States v. Diaz, 245 F.3d 294, 30001, 305 (3d Cir. 2001) (citing U.S.S.G. § 1B1.11(a)). On review, there are two exceptions to that rule: first, if applying the version of the Guidelines in effect on the date of sentencing presents an ex post facto problem, United States v. Menon, 24 F.3d 550, 556 (3d Cir. 1994), and second, if a subsequent guideline amendment “merely clarifies the law in existence at the time of sentencing,” as opposed to working a substantive change in the law. Diaz, 245 F.3d at 301. Neither exception is applicable in this case. There is clearly no ex post facto problem, and we have previously ruled that a postsentencing amendment reducing the base offense level applicable to a particular offense is a substantive change and 9 Section 3553(a)(4)(A)(ii) provides an exception when a case is remanded for resentencing; in that case, the district court “shall apply the guidelines ... that were in effect on the date of the previous sentencing of the defendant prior to the appeal.” 18 U.S.C. § 3742(g). 23 is therefore not applied retroactively to cases on appeal.10 United States v. Marcello, 13 F.3d 752, 756 (3d Cir. 1994) (affirming a defendant’s sentence even though a Guidelines amendment that had taken effect during the pendency of the defendant’s appeal had lowered the applicable Guidelines range). In this case, Brown and Wise were sentenced on November 20, 2006. The District Court properly calculated their Guidelines ranges using the version of the Guidelines that was in effect on that date. We therefore find no procedural error in the District Court’s Guidelines calculation. 10 Marcello referred to an amended Guidelines range as being “retroactive” under certain circumstances. That use of “retroactive” was apt in the sense that the legal analysis required in the case called for a discussion of the application of an amended Guideline to a pre-amendment case. Indeed, U.S.S.G. § 1B1.10 used to be entitled “Retroactivity of Amended Guidelines Range (Policy Statement).” However, in an important sense an amended range is not retroactive because a defendant has no right to have the new range applied to his case, either by a reviewing court on appeal or by a district court on remand. Instead, what 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) and U.S.S.G. § 1B1.10 provide for is a mechanism to allow district courts to consider whether the benefit of a substantive amendment listed in § 1B1.10(c) should be given to a qualifying defendant. See infra, at 25-26. It is perhaps not coincidental that § 1B1.10 no longer has the word “retroactivity” in its title but bears the new title “Reduction in Term of Imprisonment as a Result of Amended Guideline Range (Policy Statement).” 24 Nevertheless, Brown and Wise may be able to obtain some benefit from Amendment 706 in the future, through a procedure available in the District Court. Generally, a district court may not alter a term of imprisonment once it has been imposed. See 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c). However, § 3582(c)(2) provides an exception: [I]n the case of a defendant who has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment based on a sentencing range that has subsequently been lowered by the Sentencing Commission pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 994(o), upon motion of the defendant or the Director of the Bureau of Prisons, or on its own motion, the court may reduce the term of imprisonment, after considering the factors set forth in section 3553(a) to the extent that they are applicable, if such a reduction is consistent with applicable policy statements issued by the Sentencing Commission. Accordingly, if the applicable Guidelines range has been lowered after a defendant has been sentenced, a district court may–sua sponte, or upon motion of the defendant, or upon motion of the Director of the Bureau of Prisons–reduce the defendant’s sentence, but only if the reduction would be consistent with a policy statement issued by the Sentencing Commission. Id. Defendants sentenced for crack cocaine offenses prior to November 1, 2007 will, however, have to wait to seek the relief provided in § 3582(c)(2). They cannot obtain that relief immediately because § 1B1.10 of the Guidelines, entitled “Reduction in Term of Imprisonment as a Result of Amended Guideline Range (Policy Statement),” provides that a 25 reduction under § 3582(c)(2) is not authorized unless an amendment reducing the applicable guidelines range is among those listed in § 1B.10(c), see U.S.S.G. § 1B1.10(c) (Nov. 1, 2007), and Amendment 706 is not yet listed in § 1B.10(c). Therefore, Brown and Wise cannot currently file an application under § 3582(c)(2).11 But an amendment to § 1B1.10 is set to take effect on March 3, 2008. See 73 Fed. Reg. 217-01 (Jan. 2, 2008). If and when that amendment takes effect, district courts will, under the circumstances specified in § 3582(c)(2), be authorized to reduce the sentences of defendants whose Guidelines ranges would be lowered by Amendment 706. Id. Our decision today is without prejudice to Brown’s and Wise’s statutory right to pursue reduced sentences in the District Court under § 3582(c)(2), if the amendment to Guideline § 1B1.10 becomes effective on March 3, 2008. 11 Some may argue that, because the Guidelines are no longer mandatory, defendants need not wait to apply for relief under § 3582(c)(2). That fundamentally misunderstands the limits of Booker. Nothing in that decision purported to obviate the congressional directive on whether a sentence could be reduced based on subsequent changes in the Guidelines. As we have stated before, “[t]he language of the applicable sections could not be clearer: the statute directs the Court to the policy statement, and the policy statement provides that an amendment not listed in subsection (c) may not be applied retroactively pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2).” United States v. Thompson, 70 F.3d 279, 281 (3d Cir. 1995). 26