Court Opinion

ID: 9846688
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:45:29.712521+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:43.571948
License: Public Domain

MELLOY, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part, and dissenting in part.
I am pleased to concur in section II dealing with the sentence imposed upon Tracy Brunken. However, I respectfully dissent as to section I.
Our court recently decided United States v. Bates, No. 08-3414, 2009 WL 2707559 (8th Cir. Aug.31, 2009) (unpublished). The sentencing judge was the same in both Bates and this case. In Bates, our court remanded for resentenc*639ing because of comments made by the district court, in which the district court judge indicated that he did not believe he had the authority to grant a 50 percent reduction and stated:
I don’t believe the substantial assistance in this case was extraordinary, and that’s why I didn’t give a 50 percent reduction. However, if the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit believes that [Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 128 S.Ct. 586, 169 L.Ed.2d 445 (2007),] alters the requirement that in order to have a 50 percent reduction it has to be extraordinary, based on the defendant’s substantial assistance and my evaluation of the 5K1.1 factors, I would give a 50 percent reduction in this case if I wasn’t required to follow existing Eighth Circuit law.
Id. at * 1.
In the present Whitlock case the district judge made similar comments when he stated at sentencing: “I feel constrained by Eighth Circuit precedent not to go to 50 percent.... My understanding of Eighth Circuit law is that substantial assistance has to be extraordinary.” The district court then went on to explain that he did not feel the assistance in the Whit-lock case rose to the level of extraordinary. He stated that he hoped the Gall case2 would change the requirement that the assistance be extraordinary in order to allow for a 50 percent reduction. He concluded by stating: “I hope you get my decision overturned on appeal and it comes back for resentencing, and I have an opportunity to give a greater reduction in this case.”
While the comments made by the same sentencing judge in Bates and this case are not identical, I feel that they are so substantially similar that this case is indistinguishable from Bates. Accordingly, I feel we should follow the precedent established by the Bates court and remand Whitlock for resentencing.

. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 128 S.Ct. 586, 169 L.Ed.2d 445 (2007).