Court Opinion

ID: 9439186
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 06:24:29.736954+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:26:12.692565
License: Public Domain

ROGERS, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
Although the court labors to palliate the district court’s statements, the effort contravenes our precedent calling for a remand in circumstances such as these. The district judge stated “I don’t have any alternative” in response to defense counsel’s argument for a reduced sentence because the criminal history category overstated the defendant’s criminal history and because she had a low likelihood of recidivism. Under unambiguous circuit precedent, the district court had the “alternative” of considering a downward departure under § 4A1.3. Because the record is at best unclear as to whether the district court was aware of its authority to depart, a remand is required. See United States v. Beckham, 968 F.2d 47, 54-55 (D.C.Cir.1992); United States v. Saro, 24 F.3d 283, 287-88 (D.C.Cir.1994).
As the court recognizes, along with every other circuit that has addressed the issue, this circuit has held that § 4A1.3 authorizes a downward departure when criminal history category VI, assigned pursuant to the career criminal offender guideline, significantly overrepresents the seriousness of the defendant’s past criminal conduct.1 In Beckham, the defendant’s sentence was tripled to 30 years to life because he had been classified as a career offender on the basis of two prior convictions, one for attempted possession with intent to distribute cocaine in 1988 and the other for armed robbery in 1975. The district court had rejected defense arguments that the defendant’s youth, family responsibilities, contrition, and the grossly disproportionate nature of the penalty provided authority to depart; defense counsel “complained about the harshness of his sentence in general terms, but he disclaimed knowledge of any specific authority in the Guidelines for departing downward based on a mismatch between his sentence and the seriousness of his misdeeds.” Id. at 53. The district court had observed that the sentence was harsh and excessive but stated that it lacked any *493discretion in the matter because “Congress and the Sentencing Commission have taken that away from me.” Id. This court, while noting the narrow scope of the departure authority granted by § 4A1.3, nevertheless remanded the case for resen-tencing “because the district court was unaware that § 4A1.3 might provide authority for a downward departure in a case like Beckham’s....” Id. at 55. Decisions from other circuits likewise confirm the appropriateness of a remand to clarify similar ambiguities at sentencing.2
The district court’s language in the instant case is not as expansive as it was in Beckham. The relevant portion of the colloquy is as follows:
THE COURT: I wish that there was some way I could give [the defendant] a sentence less than the Guidelines call for. I am going to sentence [the defendant] at the bottom of the Guidelines, but I am convinced that she needs a long period of abstinence [from drug use] and the treatment that [the defendant] can get in the federal system.
[DEFENSE COUNSEL]: .... [After contending that there is a low likelihood of recidivism] [W]hile I concur with the Court that [the defendant] needs a lengthy or [the defendant] needs some period of incarceration with a program, I would not ask that it be lengthy. The bottom end of the Guidelines are going to put [the defendant] up at twelve or thirteen years.
THE COURT: I don’t have any alternative.
This colloquy and the district court’s subsequent colloquy with defense counsel appear only to be consistent with the district court’s view that it was bound to sentence the defendant within the Guideline range as enhanced by the career offender provision. This is not a case in which the district court rejected a possible downward departure because it had determined that the defendant’s case was not one of the exceptional cases that would fall within a downward departure provision of the Guidelines. Instead, the district court used absolute language — “I don’t have any alternative”' — in denying sentencing relief other than to sentence at the low end of the range without a downward departure. When viewed in context, the district court’s statement does not permit this court to conclude that the district court meant either that in good conscience it had no alternative or that it understood it had discretion under § 4A1.3 and chose not to exercise it.3 That the district court also was interested in assuring that the defendant had a long period of incarceration in order to end her dependency on drugs is not inconsistent with a sentence that could be imposed after departing downward, cf. *494Brown, 903 F.2d at 544, and the government does not argue to the contrary.
Moreover, viewing the record as the court does, its concession that the record is “ambiguous,” see Majority Opinion (“Maj. Op.”) at 492, as to whether the district court recognized at the time it sentenced the defendant that § 4A1.3 “might provide authority for a downward departure” cannot be reconciled with its decision not to remand this case. Until today, the court had followed or acted consistently with the majority rule: “[i]f it cannot be determined whether the sentencing court exercised its discretion or wrongly believed it could not depart, the case will be remanded.” JefRI Wood, Federal Judioial Center, Guideline Sentencing: An Outline of Appellate Case Law On Selected Issues 303 (1998).4 However, two circuits have evinced a willingness to depart from this rule. See United States v. Fortier, 180 F.3d 1217, 1231 (10th Cir.1999); see also United States v. Byrd, 53 F.3d 144, 145 (6th Cir.1995). By essentially adopting the minority view as its holding, the court misconceives the inquiry. The court recognizes that our jurisdiction in this ease turns on the merits, that is, whether “the record establishes that the district court judge misunderstood his departure authority.” See Maj. Op. at 490. But where the record is ambiguous, this court is unable to determine whether the district court’s decision is reviewable legal error or an unre-viewable exercise of discretion. A rule that resolves the ambiguity against the defendant abdicates our responsibility to determine our own jurisdiction and is potentially unjust: “a defendant whose departure request is rejected with an ambiguous ruling based on legal grounds would apparently be deprived of the appellate review to which he is statutorily entitled.” Mummert, 34 F.3d at 205 n. 2; accord United States v. Clark, 128 F.3d 122, 124 (2d Cir.1997); cf. Koon v. United States, 518 U.S. 81, 100, 116 S.Ct. 2035, 135 L.Ed.2d 392 (1996); United States v. Leandre, 132 F.3d 796, 800 (D.C.Cir.1998).
The court mischaracterizes the majority rule as one that treats ambiguity as “reversible error.” Maj. Op. at 491. Rather, the rule is designed to aid the court’s jurisdictional inquiry by allowing the district court to clarify on resentencing whether its decision not to depart falls into the class of such decisions subject to our review under 18 U.S.C. § 3742. Contrary to the court’s statement, our prior decisions have recognized that a remand to clarify an ambiguous record is consistent with our decision in United States v. Pinnick, 47 F.3d 434 (D.C.Cir.1995), which presumes, in the absence of record evidence indicating otherwise, that a district court’s refusal to depart is for discretionary reasons. See, e.g., United States v. Graham, 83 F.3d 1466, 1481 (D.C.Cir.1996); see also United States v. Chase, 174 F.3d 1193, 1195 (11th Cir.1999). The instant case falls outside the Pinnick presumption because the district court’s statement — “I don’t have any alternative” — is precisely the sort of record evidence that raises an ambiguity about the district court’s grounds for decision, triggering application of the rule requiring a remand.
An additionally troubling aspect to the court’s resolution of the ambiguity is its *495assumption that the district court was insincere when expressing its “wish that there was some way [it] could give [the defendant] a sentence less than the Guidelines call for.” Maj. Op. at 489. Even assuming that this language could be understood to have been intended only to “soften the blow,” it is at least equally possible that the district court meant what it said. By resolving this ambiguity against the defendant, the court also deprives the district court of the opportunity to consider and explain clearly whether a departure under § 4A1.3 was warranted in the instant case. Cf. United States v. Rivers, 50 F.3d 1126, 1132 (2d Cir.1995).
Of course counsel share some responsibility for any ambiguity in the record. Directing the district court’s attention to the precise relief sought under the specific Guideline would avoid future ambiguity. Not only could defense counsel have been more specific, the prosecutor also could have sought clarification of the district court’s ruling. But after Beckham, it is clear that no magic words are required, not even the invocation of the phrase “downward departure.” In Beckham, defense counsel’s arguments for a lesser sentence were unavailing. So too, here, counsel’s argument that the defendant’s two prior convictions should be viewed as related was unavailing. In Beckham, defense counsel neither referred to § 4A1.3 nor, as here, invoked language of its commentary. Indeed, defense counsel in Beckham disclaimed the possibility of other relief under the Guidelines.
Still, counsel’s argument here adequately preserved the defendant’s right to review. Counsel objected to application of the career offender enhancement because Criminal History Category VI “do[es] not accurately reflect the defendant’s actual criminal history but artificially inflate[s] her record and offense level.” Elaborating that the career offender provision did not apply because the defendant’s two prior drug convictions should be treated as related, counsel’s invocation of “artificial! ] inflation]” of the defendant’s criminal record closely tracks § 4A1.3’s authorization of a departure when the “defendant’s criminal history category significantly overre-presents the seriousness of a defendant’s criminal history_” U.S. Sentenoing Guidelines Manual § 4A1.3 (1997). While admittedly inartful, defense counsel’s objection sufficiently placed the district court on notice that resort to its discretion under § 4A1.3 was being sought. Nothing like this happened in Pinnick, 47 F.3d at 439, where counsel failed to object at all to the district court’s denial of his request for a departure. If defense counsel’s argument here had been limited to whether the career offender provision could be applied to the defendant as a matter of law, counsel’s objection to Category VI failing to “accurately reflect” the defendant’s true criminal history would have been irrelevant. Cf. DeCosta, 37 F.3d at 8. Similarly, defense counsel raised the other ground for a § 4A1.3 departure — the unlikelihood of recidivism — when arguing that the bottom of the Guidelines range was too long. In the absence of § 4A1.3, that argument also would have been irrelevant.5 Thus, even in the absence of our decision in Beckham, defense counsel’s argument was sufficient to alert the district court that a downward departure was being requested.
Had the defendant waived her objection to the district court’s failure to depart, I would agree with the court that plain error review remains for a waived objection. Maj. Op. at 491; see United States v. Albritton, 75 F.3d 709, 714 (D.C.Cir.1996) (Rogers, J., concurring). But the court fails to heed the instruction in Saro that in matters of sentencing, even under plain *496error review, it is important to be certain that the district court understood its authority and, as appropriate, exercised its discretion under that authority. 24 F.3d at 288. Where a district court states that it has no alternative to imposing the lowest sentence based on a criminal history category VI, in response to defense counsel’s argument for a sentence that does not so overstate the defendant’s prior criminal record, this court needs to be clear that the district court understood that § 4A1.3 “might provide authority” for a lesser sentence. Beckham, 968 F.2d at 55. Accordingly, because the systemic costs of a remand for resentencing do not outweigh (and the government does not argue to the contrary) the criminal justice system’s interest in assuring correct application of the Guidelines, I would remand the case in accord with circuit precedent to allow the district court to consider whether to grant a downward departure under § 4A1.3.

. See, e.g., United States v. Spencer, 25 F.3d 1105, 1112-13 (D.C.Cir.1994); United States v. Clark, 8 F.3d 839, 843 (D.C.Cir.1993); Beckham, 968 F.2d at 54; see also United States v. Webb, 139 F.3d 1390, 1395 (11th Cir.1998); United States v. Lindia, 82 F.3d 1154, 1165 (1st Cir.1996); United States v. Rivers, 50 F.3d 1126, 1131 (2d Cir.1995); United States v. Shoupe, 35 F.3d 835, 838-39 (3d Cir.1994); United States v. Bowser, 941 F.2d 1019, 1023 (10th Cir.1991); United States v. Adkins, 937 F.2d 947, 952 (4th Cir.1991); United States v. Lawrence, 916 F.2d 553, 554-55 (9th Cir.1990); United States v. Brown, 985 F.2d 478, 482 (9th Cir.1993).

. For example, in United States v. Webb, 139 F.3d 1390 (11th Cir.1998), even after the district court concurred with the Assistant United States Attorney’s attempt "to make sure the record is clear the court recognizes it has the authority to downwardly depart but chose not to do so,” id. at 1392, the Eleventh Circuit concluded that the record was ambiguous and a remand was required. Id. at 1395. To the same effect is United States v. Brown, 903 F.2d 540, 544-45 (8th Cir.1990).

. While the court is correct in noting that there are some cases in which a district court’s claimed inability to depart reflects a recognition of departure authority accompanied by a judgment that the facts are insufficiently unusual to trigger exercise of that authority, this is not such a case. Here, the district court gave every indication that it considered this to be a case worthy of a departure but that it saw no route available to reach that result. For this reason, the government’s reliance on United States v. Shark, 51 F.3d 1072, 1077 (D.C.Cir.1995) (per cu-riam), is unavailing because the court there found no ambiguity in the district court’s statement that it had no "leeway” to reduce a career offender's sentence under § 4A1.3 once the district court had rejected the defendant’s arguments in support of his departure motion. Similarly, the court’s analogy to United States v. DeCosta, 37 F.3d 5 (1st Cir.1994), goes astray. In DeCosta, the district court sought briefing on its departure authority and expressed so clear an understanding of its authority that its subsequent reference to lacking the "discretion” to depart did not create an ambiguity. Id. at 8.

. See, e.g., United States v. Spencer, 25 F.3d 1105, 1113 (D.C.Cir.1994); Beckham, 968 F.2d at 53; United States v. Barry, 938 F.2d 1327, 1330-32 (D.C.Cir.1991); United States v. Baskin, 886 F.2d 383, 389-90 (D.C.Cir.1989); cf. United States v. Harris, 959 F.2d 246, 264-65 (D.C.Cir.1992); United States v. Molina, 952 F.2d 514, 520 (D.C.Cir.1992); United States v. Lopez, 938 F.2d 1293, 1298 (D.C.Cir.1991) (citing United States v. Deigert, 916 F.2d 916, 918-19 (4th Cir.1990)); United States v. Lyons, 706 F.2d 321, 335 & n. 25 (D.C.Cir.1983). For cases from other circuits, see, e.g., United States v. Webb, 139 F.3d 1390, 1395 (11th Cir.1998); United States v. Mummert, 34 F.3d 201, 205 (3d Cir.1994); United States v. Brown, 985 F.2d 478, 481 (9th Cir.1993); United States v. Ritchey, 949 F.2d 61, 63 (2d Cir.1991); United States v. Deigert, 916 F.2d 916, 919 (4th Cir.1990); see also United States v. Ramos-Oseguera, 120 F.3d 1028, 1040-41 (9th Cir.1997), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 1135, 118 S.Ct. 1094, 140 L.Ed.2d 149 (1998).

. The court characterizes counsel’s argument against the low end of the guideline range as a plea for "leniency,” Maj. Op. at 490, without acknowledging that because the district court had previously announced its intent to sentence at the low end of the range the only possible exercise of leniency left to the court would have been a downward departure under § 4A1.3.