Court Opinion

ID: 9930834
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-07 20:01:29.344423+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:44:29.009946
License: Public Domain

USCA11 Case: 22-12201    Document: 39-1     Date Filed: 02/07/2024   Page: 1 of 4

                                                  [DO NOT PUBLISH]
                                   In the
                United States Court of Appeals
                        For the Eleventh Circuit

                          ____________________

                                No. 22-12201
                          Non-Argument Calendar
                          ____________________

       UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
                                                      Plaintiﬀ-Appellee,
       versus
       RICHARD BOND,

                                                  Defendant-Appellant.

                          ____________________

                 Appeal from the United States District Court
                      for the Middle District of Georgia
                 D.C. Docket No. 1:19-cr-00021-LAG-TQL-14
                           ____________________
USCA11 Case: 22-12201      Document: 39-1       Date Filed: 02/07/2024     Page: 2 of 4

       2                       Opinion of the Court                  22-12201

       Before WILSON, LUCK, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges.
       PER CURIAM:
               Richard Bond pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to
       possess with intent to distribute over 50 milligrams of metham-
       phetamine. See 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(A)(viii), 846. The
       district court sentenced Bond to 220 months’ imprisonment. On
       appeal, Bond contests three decisions underlying the district court’s
       sentence: (1) the district court’s conclusion that Bond is a “career
       offender” under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2; (2) the district court’s calculation
       of the quantity of methamphetamine Bond conspired to possess;
       and (3) the district court’s conclusion that it was reasonably fore-
       seeable to Bond that a co-conspirator would use a firearm in con-
       nection with the conspiracy. We agree with Bond on the first issue
       and, therefore, vacate his sentence and remand for resentencing. In
       light of that disposition, we need not resolve the other two issues
       Bond raises.
               The district court plainly erred when it decided that Bond
       qualified as a career offender based on the instant conspiracy of-
       fense. The guidelines provisions in effect at the time of Bond’s sen-
       tencing did not allow for district courts to count inchoate drug of-
       fenses toward career offender status under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2. United
       States v. Dupree, 57 F.4th 1269 (11th Cir. 2023) (en banc). The district
       court’s error is considered plain—and remand is necessary—even
       though the district court did not have the benefit of our Dupree de-
       cision when it sentenced Bond. See United States v. Rodriguez, 398
USCA11 Case: 22-12201        Document: 39-1        Date Filed: 02/07/2024        Page: 3 of 4

       22-12201                  Opinion of the Court                              3

       F.3d 1291, 1299 (11th Cir. 2005) (quoting Johnson v. United States,
       520 U.S. 461, 468 (1997)). The United States concedes that Dupree
       requires vacatur of the sentence and remand for resentencing.1
               Because we vacate Bond’s sentence and remand for resen-
       tencing, we do not reach Bond’s meth-quantity and firearm-en-
       hancement arguments. Bond expresses concern that if we do not
       address these issues now, the district court will treat its prior rul-
       ings as law of the case. We are not convinced. For starters, our
       precedent is clear that “when a criminal sentence is vacated, it be-
       comes void in its entirety; the sentence—including any enhance-
       ments—has been wholly nullified and the slate wiped clean.”
       United States v. Stinson, 97 F.3d 466, 469 (11th Cir. 1996) (quotation
       marks omitted). So there’s nothing requiring the district court to
       adhere to its prior conclusions. And it is not at all clear that the
       district court would stick to those conclusions anyway. The first
       time around, the district court understandably did not think these
       issues of much importance because, in light of the career offender
       enhancement, Bond’s guidelines range would not have changed.
       We think the proper course of action is to let the district court

       1 Since our decision in Dupree, the sentencing guidelines have been amended

       in such a way that Bond’s inchoate drug offense now counts toward career
       offender status. Aside from the United States briefly acknowledging the issue
       in a footnote of its brief, the parties have not discussed whether and to what
       extent the guidelines amendment should apply to Bond upon remand.
USCA11 Case: 22-12201      Document: 39-1     Date Filed: 02/07/2024     Page: 4 of 4

       4                      Opinion of the Court                 22-12201

       “revisit any rulings it made at the initial sentencing.” United States
       v. Yost, 185 F.3d 1178, 1181 (11th Cir. 1999).
              VACATED AND REMANDED