Court Opinion

ID: 9629681
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:47:17.416134+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:56.517226
License: Public Domain

EVANS, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Judge Kocoras sentenced the then 26-year-old Gregory Shelby to serve 285 months back in 1996. At that time, the judge expressed regrets — the sentence was far too long, he lamented, but his hands were tied by mandatory guidelines that shackled his ability to impose a sentence that was fair and reasonable. Today, the majority holds that Judge Ko-coras overstepped his bounds when he recently reduced the now 40-year-old Shelby’s sentence to a term of 180 months. Because I would affirm the judge’s well-reasoned decision, I respectfully dissent.
Recent cases, most notably United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005), and Kimbrough v. United States, 552 U.S. 85, 128 S.Ct. 558, 169 L.Ed.2d 481 (2007), represent a sea change in federal sentencing law. It is within that sea change that Judge Kocoras acted to give some relief to a defendant who has been behind bars since the first Clinton Administration. In doing so, the judge considered the § 3553(a) factors. The majority says he was wrong to do so. I disagree.
In United States v. Chapman, 532 F.3d 625 (7th Cir.2008), the government moved, pursuant to Rule 35(b)(2), to reduce the defendant’s original 120-month sentence by 36 months to a term of 84 months. The district judge, relying on the § 3553(a) factors, gave the defendant half a loaf — an 18-month reduction to a term of 102 months. In affirming that result we said:
[A] faithful and pragmatic adherence to the mandate of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) counsels that the nature and extent of any reduction be determined in light of all the sentencing factors set forth in the statute. Post-arrest cooperation cannot be assessed in a vacuum. Whether such cooperation represents an opportunistic attempt to obtain a sentence reduction or a genuine alteration in the defendant’s life perspective can best be determined by assessing that cooperation in light of earlier criminal history and the nature of the crime for which the defendant is presently being sentenced.
532 F.3d at 629. If it’s kosher to rely on the § 3553(a) factors in giving only 50 percent of a sentence reduction sought by the government in a Rule 35 resentencing, why can’t those factors also be considered in giving the defendant more of a reduction?
In United States v. Grant, 567 F.3d 776 (6th Cir.2009), the defendant was initially sentenced to a term of 25 years. Subsequently, the government filed a Rule 35(b) motion asking for a sentence reduction to 16 years. The district judge went along with the program. The defendant appealed, arguing that the judge erred when he took the position that he was powerless to consider anything other than “substantial assistance” in a resentencing proceeding under Rule 35(b). The Sixth Circuit agreed and reversed. The district judge, the court held, “is permitted to consider other factors normally required for a just sentence under § 3553(a).” Unlike the majority, I would not pooh-pooh the Sixth Circuit’s decision because it rested, in part, on the removal of the “to reflect” language from the present version of Rule 35(b). I *751would instead embrace the view taken by our sister circuit.
Following the Sixth Circuit would also have the additional benefit of discouraging fudging by judges during Rule 35(a) resen-tencing proceedings. Judge Kocoras, of course, is a savvy 29-year veteran of the district court. I have no doubt whatsoever he could have said that Gregory Shelby’s substantial assistance was of much more value than would be reflected by a modest reduction of only 30 months. Giving any kind of aid to prosecutors is dangerous for prisoners, the judge could have said, and Shelby deserved a much higher reward: letting the word get out that you are snitching while in prison can be extremely hazardous to one’s health. In other words, the judge could have given Shelby a much greater reduction than 30 months if only he had confined his stated reasons to the substantial assistance rubric. This is game-playing, and we should not encourage it.
Finally, I wonder why the government even appealed in this case. Certainly it has the right to do so, but I would hope it has much better things to do. Without an appeal, Shelby’s sentence reduction would have passed under the radar screen without notice. Is it really all that important that Judge Kocoras gave Shelby the kind of sentence he would have preferred to have given him over a decade ago? After all, it’s not like we’re running out of people behind bars. According to recent government statistics reported by a Pew Charitable Trust study, the prison population in America has increased by 700 percent since 1970. The United States, the study reports, incarcerates more people than Russia, South Africa, Mexico, Iran, India, Australia, Brazil, and Canada combined— at an average cost of $22,650 per year, per inmate. In the big picture, I don’t think the adjustment to Mr. Shelby’s sentence is worth all the fuss it has aroused.