Court Opinion

ID: 9498832
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:29:27.15481+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:06.153213
License: Public Domain

FERNANDEZ, Circuit Judge,
Dissenting:
I respectfully dissent because it is quite clear to me that the district court simply used the Sentencing Guideline calculation as a starting point, and we have already declared that it is proper for a court so to do. See United States v. Cantrell, 433 F.3d 1269, 1280 (9th Cir.2006); see also United States v. Menyweather, 431 F.3d 692, 696-97 (9th Cir.2005).
I recognize that the district court’s language was not entirely felicitous. That is not surprising because this sentencing came during the first few months after Booker was decided. Still and all, despite the use of the word “presumption,” the district court explained that it meant “starting point” when it said that. Similarly, the district court used the word “departure,” which was unfortunate because that implies something more rigid than the regime we now live in. But, even there, the court indicated that it was merely grasping for a label, for it quickly added “or ... deviation.”
As I see it, the district court meant what it said; after all, it did deviate from the strict Guideline calculation, although Zava-la had personally advanced the methamphetamine conspiracy by selling at least 42 pounds of a mixture or substance containing methamphetamine. Were I in doubt, I would take the district court at its word, as I think we ought generally to do. See McGuckin v. Smith, 974 F.2d 1050, 1056 (9th Cir.1992), overruled in part on other grounds by WMX Techs., Inc. v. Miller, 104 F.3d 1133, 1136 (9th Cir.1997) (en banc); Cont’l Connector Corp. v. Houston Fearless Corp., 350 F.2d 183, 189 (9th Cir.1965).
That being so, while I cannot say that I am in disagreement with the presumption exegesis in the per curiam opinion, I do not join it. Whatever other readers of the opinion might think of it, whether they consider its reasoning eximious or exiguous, I deem it extraneous. It cannot affect my decision of this case.
Thus, I respectfully dissent.