Court Opinion

ID: 9572904
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:45:37.763759+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:34:37.382109
License: Public Domain

RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I do not disagree with the majority’s conclusion that the sentence imposed on Wasem Petrus was substantively reasonable. Nor do I disagree with the majority’s analysis of the first two factors of the procedural-reasonableness test (properly calculating the United States Sentencing Guidelines range, and considering both 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) and the parties’ arguments). See United States v. Bolds, 511 F.3d 568, 581 (6th Cir.2007). I part ways with the majority, however, regarding its treatment of the third factor of this test (articulating the reasons for imposing the chosen sentence). See id. Because the district court did not adequately explain why it rejected certain arguments made by Petrus for a sentence below the Guidelines range, I respectfully dissent.
This court declared in Bolds that the third consideration in reviewing the procedural reasonableness of a sentence is whether the district court “adequately articulated its reasoning for imposing the particular sentence chosen, including any rejection of the parties’ arguments for an outside-Guidelines sentence and any decision to deviate from the advisory Guidelines range.” Id. Although this standard does not require the district court to engage in a “ritualistic incantation to establish consideration of a legal issue,” it does require the court to “provide a clear explanation of why it has either accepted or rejected the parties’ arguments and there*358by chosen the particular sentence imposed, regardless of whether it is within or outside of the Guidelines.” Id. at 580 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). This means that “[wjhen a defendant raises a particular argument in seeking a lower sentence, the record must reflect both that the district judge considered the defendant’s argument and that the judge explained the basis for rejecting it.” Id. (emphasis added) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).
I agree with the majority that the district court acknowledged and considered Petrus’s arguments regarding his family background and immigration status, but I find nothing in the record to support the majority’s statements that the district court either articulated or explained its basis for rejecting these arguments. (Maj. Op. at 354-55) Thus, although the majority acknowledges the wisdom of Judge Clay’s admonition that “it is clear that the better practice — and the one required by our case law — is for the district court to explicitly address all of the nonfrivolous arguments that a defendant raises in support of a lower sentence,” United States v. Herrod, No. 07-2197, 2009 WL 2514047, at *8 (6th Cir. Aug. 19, 2009) (unpublished) (Clay, J., concurring), the majority fails to apply this standard in the present case.
The district court offered no evaluation of Petrus’s arguments concerning his family circumstances, and the entirety of the court’s analysis of Petrus’s arguments regarding his immigration status is as follows:
In deciding what sentence to impose, the Court certainly is mindful that it can take into account Mr. Petrus’[s] deport-able status and the fact that he would not be entitled to receive all of the benefits of all of the programs that might be available to a citizen of the United States while housed in the Bureau of Prisons facility. So those are what — • those are the considerations that the Court has in deciding the sentence to impose.
Pursuant to the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, the Court has considered the Guidelines and the factors in 18 U.S.C. 3553(a), the Defendant is committed to the custody of the Bureau of Prisons for a period of 70 months.
As this passage from the sentencing hearing demonstrates, the district court acknowledged Petrus’s arguments concerning his immigration status and then, without any explanation, the court imposed a sentence of 70 months. Presumably the court rejected Petrus’s arguments that he was an atypical defendant and that his crime did not fall in the heartland of cases anticipated by the Guidelines. But we are left to speculate as to how the court reached this determination. If we are to give any effect to the third prong of the procedural-reasonableness test, we must require more explanation than that which was offered in the present case. The district court’s perfunctory recitation of the parties’ arguments and the statutory sentencing factors does not constitute an adequate explanation of its sentencing decision.
This case in particular cries out for an explanation as to why Petrus received substantially disparate treatment in comparison to his coconspirators at sentencing. Jeny Maqi, for example, who was one of Petrus’s coconspirators at the same level of culpability with a 121-to-151-month Guidelines range, avoided any incarceration whatsoever because of her extensive cooperation with the government. But Petrus was equally willing and able to cooperate with the government, yet he did not receive a U.S.S.G. § 5K1.1 substantial-assistance reduction simply because he lost the race to be the first to “spill the beans” *359to the United States Attorney. Fundamental fairness requires more of an explanation for this seemingly inequitable result than the district court’s simple statement “that there is a vast distinction between Mr. Petrus and Miss [Maqi] because of the nature of her cooperation.”
I acknowledge that there is selected caselaw in our circuit that supports the conclusion reached by the majority. These cases, however, appear to advocate the position of “do as I say, not as I do.” On the one hand, the caselaw requires the sentencing court to “provide a clear explanation of why it has either accepted or rejected the parties’ arguments.” Bolds, 511 F.3d at 580. But our circuit has also determined, at least under plain-error review, that a sentence is procedurally reasonable even where “the district judge did not articulate his reasons for rejecting [the defendant’s] arguments.” United States v. Lapsins, 570 F.3d 758, 773 (6th Cir.2009). In Lapsins, this court in fact concluded that a mere reference to 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(1), which requires a sentencing court to consider “the history and characteristics of the defendant,” was sufficient to dispose of the explanation requirement. Id. at 774.
This contradiction between the articulation of the law and its actual application fails both to provide meaningful guidance to the district courts and to give notice to criminal defendants of their rights at sentencing. We should either require a clear explanation for the sentence imposed or declare that such an explanation is not necessary. Stating that we require an explanation and then failing to enforce the requirement does nothing but create confusion and uncertainty.
The governing law as set forth by this court in Bolds, and cited by the majority in the present case, is as follows:
When a defendant raises a particular argument in seeking a lower sentence, the record must reflect both that the district judge considered the defendant’s argument and that the judge explained the basis for rejecting it. Likewise, the record must contain the district court’s rationale for concluding that the sentence imposed is sufficient but not greater than necessary, to comply with the purposes of sentencing set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). While there is no requirement that the district court engage in a ritualistic incantation to establish consideration of a legal issue or that the court make specific findings related to each of the factors considered, the district court must nonetheless provide an articulation of the reasons the district court reached the sentenced imposed. Simply listing the § 3553(a) factors and various characteristics of the defendant without referring to the applicable Guidelines range or explaining the decision to stay within or deviate from that range is insufficient. The district court must provide a clear explanation of why it has either accepted or rejected the parties’ arguments and thereby chosen the particular sentence imposed, regardless of whether it is within or outside of the Guidelines.
Bolds, 511 F.3d at 580 (alterations, citations, and internal quotation marks omitted); accord United States v. Cousins, 469 F.3d 572, 576-78 (6th Cir.2006) (concluding that a sentence was procedurally unreasonable due to the district court’s failure to provide an adequate explanation for its sentencing determinations), overruled in part on other grounds by Irizarry v. United States, — U.S. -, 128 S.Ct. 2198, 2202-04, 171 L.Ed.2d 28 (2008).
The nominal enforcement of the Bolds standard has eroded what would otherwise be a clear legal rule. I believe that we should practice what we preach and ob*360serve this straightforward mandate. Because the district court in the present case did not offer any explanation for its rejection of Petrus’s arguments concerning his family background and immigration status, I believe that the sentence imposed is not procedurally reasonable.
For all of the reasons set forth above, I would vacate Pétrus’s sentence and remand for resentencing.