Court Opinion

ID: 9380604
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-03-20 18:00:22.809561+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:17:26.349979
License: Public Domain

Case: 22-50189        Document: 00516681844             Page: 1      Date Filed: 03/20/2023

             United States Court of Appeals
                  for the Fifth Circuit
                                     ____________                              United States Court of Appeals
                                                                                        Fifth Circuit

                                      No. 22-50189
                                                                                      FILED
                                                                                 March 20, 2023
                                    Summary Calendar
                                    ____________                                 Lyle W. Cayce
                                                                                      Clerk
   United States of America,

                                                                     Plaintiff—Appellee,

                                            versus

   Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo,

                                              Defendant—Appellant.
                     ______________________________

                     Appeal from the United States District Court
                          for the Western District of Texas
                              USDC No. 3:12-CR-849-6
                     ______________________________

   Before Barksdale, Stewart, and Ho, Circuit Judges.
   Per Curiam: *
         Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo appeals his below-Guidelines 480-
   months’ sentence for: conspiracy to conduct the affairs of an enterprise
   through a pattern of racketeering activity; conspiracy to kill in a foreign
   country; and kidnapping. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 956, 1201, 1962(d). He pleaded

         _____________________
         *
             This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.
Case: 22-50189      Document: 00516681844          Page: 2   Date Filed: 03/20/2023

                                    No. 22-50189

   guilty pursuant to a written plea agreement which included, inter alia, an
   appeal waiver, which has two exceptions not applicable to this appeal.
          Marrufo’s Guidelines Sentencing range was life imprisonment. In
   sentencing, the court accepted the first of two requests by the Government
   for a downward departure to reach the above-stated 480-months’ sentence.
   Marrufo maintains the court erred by rejecting the second request, which
   would have resulted in a 420-months’ sentence.
          The Government seeks to enforce the appeal waiver.             Marrufo
   contends the waiver should not be enforced because a miscarriage of justice
   will result if he cannot challenge the substantive reasonableness of his
   sentence. He does not claim his waiver was unknowing or involuntary, nor
   does he claim his challenge is not within the scope of the waiver.
          We review de novo whether an appeal waiver bars an appeal. E.g.,
   United States v. Keele, 755 F.3d 752, 754 (5th Cir. 2014). Although some
   circuits recognize a miscarriage-of-justice exception to a valid appeal waiver,
   this court has “declined explicitly either to adopt or to reject it”. United
   States v. Barnes, 953 F.3d 383, 388–89 (5th Cir. 2020). Even if we recognized
   this exception, Marrufo’s “standard challenge to the district court’s
   discretionary denial of a downward departure . . . does not present an
   assertion of a miscarriage of justice”. United States v. Kelly, No. 22-10300,
   2023 WL 314299, at *1 (5th Cir. 2023) (unpublished); see also United States
   v. Portillo-Palencia, 837 F. App’x 286, 290 (5th Cir. 2020); United States v.
   Riley, 381 F. App’x 315, 316 (5th Cir. 2010).
          DISMISSED.

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