Court Opinion

ID: 9497404
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:50:55.649676+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:11.041874
License: Public Domain

•BRIGHT, Circuit Judge,
concurring and dissenting.
I concur in affirming both Lara’s and Lopez’s convictions and vacating Lara’s sentence for further consideration. I dissent in affirming Lopez’s sentence. Lopez has filed a letter pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 28© calling our attention to the United States Supreme Court’s opinion in Blakely v. Washington, - U.S. -, 124 S.Ct. 2531, 159 L.Ed.2d 403 (2004), and asserting that his sentence could be subject to adjustment. In Blakely, the Court held that portions of the State of Washington’s sentencing guidelines were unconstitutional because they deprived a defendant of his Sixth Amendment right to “insist that the prosecutor prove to a jury all facts legally essential to the punishment.” Id. at 2543. The district court has not had -an opportunity to consider the effect of Blakely on Lopez’s sentence. I would, therefore, also remand *945Lopez’s sentence to the district court for further consideration in light of Blakely and its progeny.1

. I take this language in part from this court’s treatment of the Supreme Court’s decision in Bailey v. United States, 516 U.S. 137, 116 S.Ct. 501, 133 L.Ed.2d 472 (1995), where the Supreme Court clarified a statute relating to crime and punishment. The Court determined that the Bailey case applied to pending appeals even where the issue was not raised in the district court. See United States v. McKinney, 79 F.3d 105 (8th Cir.1996), vacated by, McKinney v. United States, 520 U.S. 1226, 117 S.Ct. 1816, 137 L.Ed.2d 1025 (1997) (reversing the Eighth Circuit’s holding that the Supreme Court's decision in Bailey did not apply to a pending appeal); Johnson v. United States, 520 U.S. 461, 117 S.Ct. 1544, 137 L.Ed.2d 718 (1997) (holding that the court of appeals ought to engage in plain error review with respect to legal principles not recognized at the time of the relevant trial, but recognized before the appeal was decided); see also Schriro v. Summerlin, — U.S. -, 124 S.Ct. 2519, 2522, 159 L.Ed.2d 442 (2004) (stating ”[w]hen a decision of this Court results in a 'new rule,’ that rule applies to all criminal cases still pending on direct review”).