Opinion ID: 8704051
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Ingram’s Motion to Reduce His Sentence Based on Amendment 750

Text: Ingram also appears to seek relief based on Amendment 750 to the Guidelines, which lowered base offense levels for crack cocaine offenses effective November 1, 2011. See Def.’s Mot. at 6 (requesting “relief under the new 18-1 ratio for the new guidelines that went retroactive on the 1st of November”). Although Ingram does not state as much, the Court construes his motion as being made pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) (2006), which provides that in 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. Thus, as a threshold matter under § 3582(c)(2), “the defendant must have been sentenced ‘based on a sentencing range that has subsequently been lowered.’ ” United States v. Berry, 618 F.3d 13, 16 (D.C.Cir.2010) (quoting 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2)) (emphasis added). The government asserts that Ingram’s sentence was based on a Rule 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement that was not tied to any particular Guideline sentencing range, and that Ingram is therefore ineligible for § 3582(c)(2) relief. Gov’t’s Opp’n at 18. For the reasons that follow, the Court agrees. In determining whether a sentence imposed pursuant to a Rule 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement is “based on” the Guidelines, the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Freeman v. United States, - U.S. -, 131 S.Ct. 2685, 180 L.Ed.2d 519 (2011), is controlling. There, the defendant was indicted for several crimes, including possession with the intent to distribute cocaine base in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C). Id. at -, 131 S.Ct. at 2691 (plurality). He entered into a Rule 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement providing for an agreed-upon sentence of 106 months imprisonment. Id. The agreement reflected “the parties’ expectation that [the defendant] would face a Guidelines range of 46 to 57 months, along with a consecutive mandatory minimum of 60 months for possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime.” Id. (internal citation omitted). “The recommended sentence of 106 months thus corresponded with the minimum sentence suggested by the Guidelines, in addition to the 60-month” mandatory minimum. Id. The district court accepted the plea agreement and imposed the agreed-upon sentence of 106 months’ imprisonment. Id. After the Sentencing Commission amended the Guidelines to remedy the disparity between the penalties for cocaine base (crack) and powder cocaine offenses, the defendant moved to reduce his sentence under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2). Id. at -, 131 S.Ct. at 2691-92 (plurality). The district court denied the motion, and the Sixth Circuit affirmed, reasoning that § 3582(c) does not authorize the reduction of a sentence imposed following a Rule 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement, absent a miscarriage of justice or mutual mistake. Id. at -, 131 S.Ct. at 2692 (plurality). The Supreme Court reversed the Sixth Circuit, in a 4-1-4 decision. Justice Kennedy, writing for a four-justice plurality, reasoned that while “Rule 11(c)(1)(C) permits the defendant and the prosecutor to agree that a specific sentence is appropriate, ... that agreement does not discharge the district court’s independent obligation to exercise its discretion” in imposing sentences. Id. “In the usual sentencing, whether following trial or plea,” the plurality observed that “the judge’s reliance on the Guidelines will be apparent, for the judge will use the Guidelines range as the starting point in the analysis and impose a sentence within the range.” Id. The plurality concluded that “[e]ven when a defendant enters into an 11(c)(1)(C) agreement, the judge’s decision to accept the plea and impose the recommended sentence is likely to be based on the Guidelines; and when it is, the defendant should be eligible to seek § 3582(c)(2) relief.” Id. at -, 131 S.Ct. at 2695 (plurality). Applying these principles, the Freeman plurality determined that the defendant was eligible for § 3582(c)(2) relief because, even though his sentence followed a Rule 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement, “[t]he transcript of [his] sentencing hearing reveal[ed] that his original sentence was based on the Guidelines.” Id. Justice Sotomayor wrote a concurring opinion taking a narrower approach. Although she agreed with the plurality’s conclusion that the defendant was eligible for a sentence reduction under § 3582(c)(2), she disagreed “with the plurality that the district judge’s calculation of the Guidelines provide[d] the basis for the term of imprisonment imposed pursuant to” the Rule 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement. Id. at -, 131 S.Ct. at 2695-97 (Sotomayor, J. concurring). Rather, in her view, “the term of imprisonment imposed by a district court pursuant to [a Rule 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement] is ‘based on’ the agreement itself, not on the judge’s calculation of the Sentencing Guidelines.” Id. at -, 131 S.Ct. at 2695 (Sotomayor, J., concurring). This, she reasoned, is because, “[a]t the time of sentencing, the term of imprisonment imposed pursuant to a [Rule 11(c)(1)(C) plea] agreement does not involve the court’s independent calculation of the Guidelines or consideration of the other 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors” — instead, “[t]he court may only accept or reject the agreement, and if it chooses to accept it, at sentencing the court may only impose the term of imprisonment the agreement calls for; the court may not change its terms.” Id. at --•, 131 S.Ct. at 2695 (Sotomayor, J., concurring). She thus concluded that a sentence imposed pursuant to a Rule 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement is “based on” that agreement, not on the Guidelines, even if the Guidelines were relevant to the parties’ plea negotiations and even if the sentencing court referred to the Guidelines in deciding whether to accept the plea. Id. at -, 131 S.Ct. at 2696 (Sotomayor, J., concurring). Justice Sotomayor did, however, recognize a caveat: when a Rule 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement “expressly uses a Guidelines sentencing range applicable to the charged offense to establish the term of imprisonment, and that range is subsequently lowered by the United States Sentencing Commission, the term of imprisonment is ‘based on’ the range employed and the defendant is eligible for sentence reduction under § 3582(c)(2).” Id. at -, 131 S.Ct. at 2695 (Sotomayor, J., concurring) (emphasis added). She provided two examples to illustrate this principle. See id. at -, 131 S.Ct. at 2697-98 (Sotomayor, J., concurring). First, when a Rule 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement explicitly “call[s] for the defendant to be sentenced within a particular Guidelines sentencing range,” the “district court’s acceptance of the agreement obligates the court to sentence the defendant accordingly, and there can be no doubt that the term of imprisonment the court imposes is ‘based on’ the agreed-upon sentencing range within the meaning of § 3582(c)(2).” Id. at -, 131 S.Ct. at 2697 (Sotomayor, J., concurring). Second, when “a plea agreement ... provide[s] for a specific term of imprisonment — such as a number of months — but also make[s] clear that the basis for the specified term is a Guidelines sentencing range applicable to the offense to which the defendant pleaded guilty,” and that “sentencing range is evident from the agreement itself,” “the term of imprisonment imposed by the court in accordance with that agreement is ‘based on’ that range.” Id. at -, 131 S.Ct. at 2697-98 (Sotomayor, J., concurring). Because the plea agreement in Freeman stated that the defendant “agree[d] to have his sentence determined pursuant to the Sentencing Guidelines” and explicitly referenced the applicable Guideline ranges, Justice Soto-mayor agreed with the plurality that the defendant’s sentence was “based on” the Guidelines. Id. at -, 131 S.Ct. at 2699 (Sotomayor, J., concurring). In applying Freeman here, the Court must first determine whether the plurality opinion or Justice Sotomayor’s concurrence controls. Under Marks v. United States. “[w]hen a fragmented Court decides a case and no single rationale explaining the result enjoys the assent of five Justices, the holding of the Court may be viewed as that position taken by those Members who concurred in the judgment] on the narrowest grounds.” 430 U.S. 188, 193, 97 S.Ct. 990, 51 L.Ed.2d 260 (1977) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). Applying the Marks rule to Freeman, every Circuit to consider the question has concluded that Justice Soto-mayor’s concurrence in Freeman expresses the holding of the case because it contains the narrowest grounds for the Court’s decision. See United States v. Dixon, 687 F.3d 356, 359 (7th Cir.2012); United States v. Thompson, 682 F.3d 285, 290 (3d Cir.2012); United States v. Austin, 676 F.3d 924, 927-28 (9th Cir.2012); United States v. Rivera-Martinez, 665 F.3d 344, 348 (1st Cir.2011); United States v. Brown, 653 F.3d 337, 340 (4th Cir.2011); United States v. Smith, 658 F.3d 608, 611 (6th Cir.2011); United States v. White, 429 Fed.Appx. 43, 47 (2d Cir.2011). Other members of this Court have reached the same result. See, e.g., United States v. Heard, 859 F.Supp.2d 97, 100 (D.D.C.2012); United States v. Turner, 825 F.Supp.2d 240, 245 (D.D.C.2011); United States v. Walker, 818 F.Supp.2d 151, 152 (D.D.C.2011). Finding the reasoning of these decisions persuasive and in the absence of binding authority from the District of Columbia Circuit, this Court likewise finds that Justice Sotomayor’s concurrence is the controlling opinion in Freeman. Under Justice Sotomayor’s approach, Ingram is ineligible for § 3582(c)(2) relief because the stipulated term of imprisonment in his Rule 11(c)(1)(C) plea agreement was not expressly “based on” a Guideline sentencing range. Although the opening paragraph of the plea agreement refers generally to the applicability of the Guidelines, see ECF No. 182 at 1 (“Your client ... understands that your client will be sentenced according to 18 U.S.C. Sections 3553(a) and 3553(c) through (f), upon consideration of the [Guidelines], which will apply to determine your client’s [Guideline range.”), the agreed-upon term of imprisonment does not refer to a particular Guideline range, offense level, or criminal history category. Rather, the plea agreement states only that the parties “agree that a sentence of incarceration of 13 years is the appropriate sentence for the offense(s) to which [the defendant] is pleading guilty,” with no explanation for how this number was reached. Id. at 2. As a result, this Court, like the First Circuit in Rivera-Martinez, “cannot identify a referenced sentencing range from the [plea a]greement alone,” and therefore “would have to supplement the [a]greement with either the parties’ background negotiations or the facts that informed [this] judge’s decision to accept the plea,” which “Justice Sotomayor’s concurrence forbids.” 665 F.3d at 349 (citation omitted); see also Dixon, 687 F.3d at 362 (finding defendant ineligible for a sentence reduction under § 3582(c)(2) where “[t]he written [plea] agreement ... did not expressly base the agreed sentence on a Guideline range in the written agreement itself’). Furthermore, the parties’ agreed-upon sentence of thirteen years (156 months) was well below the bottom of Ingram’s Guideline range of 188 to 235 months, see ECF No. 211 at 1-2, undermining the inference that the Guidelines formed the basis for his sentence. Because there is no indication from the plea agreement that the parties’ agreed-upon sentence was “based on” the Guidelines, the Court concludes that Ingram is not eligible for a sentence reduction under § 3582(c)(2).