Court Opinion

ID: 9491020
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:01:19.407976+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:27.655188
License: Public Domain

BRISCOE, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
The majority correctly concludes Svacina’s unconvicted crime was relevant conduct to the crime of conviction. Although the majority also reaches the correct result in concluding Svaeina is not entitled to resentencing based .on his ex post facto argument, I would reach the result by a much different .route.
Svaeina was charged with two crimes: possession of methamphetamine in August 1995, and possession of methamphetamine on November 3, 1995. He pleaded guilty to the later offense and the earlier offense was dismissed. However, in determining the drug quantity attributable to Svaeina, the court included the drug quantity involved in the earlier crime because the earlier crime was relevant conduct under the guidelines.
*1188When Svaeina committed the first crime, the guidelines provided a lighter sentence for possession of L-methamphetamine than for possession of an equal quantity of D-methamphetamine, and the government had the burden at sentencing of proving the type of methamphetamine possessed. United States v. Lande, 40 F.3d 329, 330-31 (10th Cir.1994); United States v. Deninno, 29 F.3d 572, 580 (10th Cir.1994). However, when Svaeina committed the second crime, the guidelines provided the same sentence for possession of L-methamphetamine as for D-methamphetamine. In sentencing him for the later • offense, the district court treated the' methamphetamine involved in both offenses as D-methamphetamine.
Had Svaeina been convicted of the earlier crime and not the later crime, application of the amended guidelines to determine the drug quantity would violate the ex post facto clause. The ex post facto clause is violated when application of an amended sentencing guideline to an event occurring before its enactment disadvantages the defendant by increasing punishment for the crime for which the defendant is sentenced. See Lynce v. Mathis, 519 U.S. 433, -, 117 S.Ct. 891, 892, 137 L.Ed.2d 63 (1997); Miller v. Florida, 482 U.S. 423, 430, 107 S.Ct. 2446, 2451, 96 L.Ed.2d 351 (1987). Thus, when the sentence for the crime of conviction is increased by an amendment enacted after the crime was committed, the ex post facto clause is violated. See United States v. McMullen, 86 F.3d 135, 138 (8th Cir.1996); United States v. Gerber, 24 F.3d 93, 96 (10th Cir.1994).
That is not what occurred here. Svaeina was not sentenced for the pre-amendment offense. His sentence for the post-amendment crime of conviction was not retroactively increased by the amendment. The guidelines commentary, as well as binding precedent, compels the conclusion that application of the amended guidelines to pre-amendment relevant conduct does not violate the ex post facto clause.
Generally, the guidelines manual in effect on the date of sentencing applies, unless it would violate the ex post facto clause. U.S.S.G. § lBl.ll(a), (b). However, under the “one book” rule, “[i]f the defendant is convicted of two offenses, the first committed before, and the second after, a revised edition of the Guidelines Manual became effective, the revised edition of the Guidelines Manual is to be applied to both offenses.” U.S.S.G. § lBl.ll(b)(3). Application Note 2 explains:
Subsection (b)(3) provides that where the defendant is convicted of two offenses, the first committed before, and the second after, a revised edition of the Guidelines Manual became effective, the revised edition of the Guidelines Manual is to be applied to both offenses, even if the revised edition results in an increased penalty for the first offense. Because the defendant completed the second offense after the amendment to the guidelines took effect, the ex post facto clause does not prevent determining the sentence for that count based on the amended guidelines. For example, if a defendant pleads guilty to a single count of embezzlement that occurred after the most recent edition of the Guidelines Manual became effective, the guideline range applicable in sentencing will encompass any relevant conduct (e.g., related embezzlement offenses that may have occurred prior to the effective date of the guideline amendments) for the offense of conviction. The same would be true for a defendant convicted of two counts of embezzlement, one committed before the amendments were enacted, and the second after. In this example, the ex post facto clause would not bar application of the amended guideline to the first conviction; a contrary conclusion would mean that such defendant was subject to a lower guideline range than if convicted only of the second offense.
Guidelines commentary that interprets or explains a guideline is authoritative unless it violates the Constitution or a federal statute, or is a plainly erroneous interpretation of the guideline. Stinson v. United States, 508 U.S. 36, 113 S.Ct. 1913, 123 L.Ed.2d 598 (1993); United States v. McCloud, 127 F.3d 1284 (10th Cir.1997). The commentary is not clearly wrong about application of an amended guideline to unconvicted pre-amendment *1189relevant conduct of a post-amendment crime of conviction, it is not inconsistent with the guideline it explains, and it is not contrary to federal law.
The ex post facto ' clause has two purposes^—to restrain legislatures from arbitrary action and to assure legislative acts give fair warning of their 'effect and permit individuals to rely on their meaning until explicitly changed. Miller, 482 U.S. at 429-30, 107 S.Ct. at 2450-51; Weaver v. Graham, 450 U.S. 24, 28-30, 101 S.Ct. 960, 963-64, 67 L.Ed.2d 17 (1981); Gerber, 24 F.3d at 96. “Critical to relief under the Ex Post Facto Clause is not an individual’s right to less punishment, but the lack of fair notice and governmental restraint when the legislature increases punishment beyond what was prescribed when the crime was consummated.” Weaver, 450 U.S. at 30, 101 S.Ct. at 964.
Here, when Svacina committed his post-amendment crime of conviction, he had fair warning his pre-amendment conduct could be used in determining his sentence for the post-amendment crime and that possession of L-methamphetamine was now regarded as just as serious as possession of D-methamphetamine. It was not the amendment to the guidelines that disadvantagéd him, but his election to continue his criminal activity after the amendment became effective. He could easily have avoided coming under the amendment by not continuing to possess methamphetamine. See United States v. Cooper, 35 F.3d 1248, 1250 (8th Cir.1994), vacated and remanded, 514 U.S. 499, 115 S.Ct. 1597, 131 L.Ed.2d 588 (1995), opinion reinstated, 63 F.3d 761 (8th Cir.1995); see also, United States v. Cabrera-Sosa, 81 F.3d 998, 1001 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 117 S.Ct. 218, 136 L.Ed.2d 151 (1996); United States v. Bailey, 123 F.3d 1381 1406 (11th Cir.1997).
Moreover, in Witte v. United States, 515 U.S. 389, 115 S.Ct. 2199, 132 L.Ed.2d 351 (1995), the Court held use of uncharged misconduct to enhance the sentence for a post-guidelines crime of conviction does not violate the ex post facto clause. This circuit has also used the same analysis in rejecting ex post facto claims based on amendments to sentencing laws. In United States v. Haddock, 956 F.2d 1534, 1553-54 (10th Cir.1992), overruled on other grounds, 519 U.S. 482, 117 S.Ct. 921, 137 L.Ed.2d 107 (1997), the court held consideration of losses from pre-guidelines fraud in determining the offense level for post-guidelines fraud did not violate the ex post facto clause. Although grouping the losses “arguably [made] more burdensome Haddock’s punishment for his post-guidelines crimes,” the punishment for post-guidelines crimes was not imposed retroactively. The court concluded “enhancement of a sentence for a later offense based on losses associated with crimes that were committed prior to the effective date of the Guidelines does not violate the Ex Post Facto Clause.” Id. at 1554; see also, United States v. Roederer, 11 F.3d 973, 975 (10th Cir.1993).
Similarly, in Cabrera-Sosa, the defendant raised an ex post facto challenge to an aggravated felony enhancement to his sentence for illegal reentry after deportation for a felony. He committed the underlying felony, possession of cocaine, in 1986 but. the aggravated felony provision was not enacted until 1988. He reentered the United States in 1992. The court held the ex post facto clause was not violated by applying the 1988 aggravated felony provision to a crime committed in 1986 and enhancing his sentence for the 1992 crime of conviction. The court explained that although defendant was clearly disadvantaged by the aggravated felony enhancement, he was not sentenced for the drug offense but for illegal entry, and the penalties were unambiguous when he reentered the country after 1988.
Here, application of the amended guideline to pre-amendment relevant conduct used to enhance the sentence for the post-amendment crime of conviction.did not retroactively increase the penalty for the earlier crime. Instead, it provided a stiffer penalty for the crime of conviction. Although application of the amended guideline may have disadvantaged Svacina, it did not violate the ex post facto clause because he was not sentenced for the pre-amendment relevant conduct.
Because application of the amended' guideline-does not violate the ex post facto clause, we' need not address whether Svacina waived objections to the government’s failure to *1190prove the type of methamphetamine at sentencing or whether he might have an ineffective assistance of counsel claim.