Court Opinion

ID: 9487159
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 12:09:50.419375+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:52:07.740130
License: Public Domain

TANG, Senior Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. I do not dissent from the proposition that plea agreements are contractual in nature and subject to strict enforcement. In this case, however, the government in fact recommended the low end of the guideline range by explicitly confirming the court’s understanding' that this was indeed the government’s recommendation as stated in the presentence report and the defendant’s sentencing memorandum. In Myers’ request for reconsideration of the sentence, he stated that both the prosecution and defense joined in this recommendation.
The defendant’s real objection is that the government’s recommendation was not made with “at least some minimal advocacy.” The plea agreement did not require “minimal advocacy” in the government’s recommendation. In United States v. Benchimol, 471 U.S. 453, 455, 105 S.Ct. 2103, 2104-05, 85 L.Ed.2d 462 (1985), the Supreme Court rejected a similar attempt to imply a requirement that a prosecutor “enthusiastically” recommend a certain sentence, when the plea agreement simply required a recommendation.
I would affirm the sentence.