Court Opinion

ID: 9499234
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:41:48.834575+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:21.984158
License: Public Domain

HANSEN, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the judgment.
I concur in the judgment of the court because the district court’s failure to rule on the Government’s departure motion was harmless error, and I agree that Zeigler’s ultimate 24-month sentence is reasonable given the nature and circumstances of his offenses and Zeigler’s history and characteristics as discussed by the court, supra at 6. I write separately to clarify the dif*819ference between departures from an otherwise applicable Guidelines range (in order to arrive at a correctly calculated advisory Guidelines sentencing range) and the imposition of a post-Booker non-Guidelines sentence. I also write to reinforce the district court’s obligation to rule on departure motions in its quest for an accurate advisory Guidelines sentence.
The court’s opinion properly quotes the three-step analysis for reviewing a district court sentence as set out in United States v. Haack, 403 F.3d 997, 1003 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, — U.S. —, 126 S.Ct. 276, 163 L.Ed.2d 246 (2005). (Supra at 4-5.) In performing its analysis, however, I respectfully conclude that it conflates the difference between our review of a district court’s application of a departure under the Guidelines and our review of the reasonableness of its ultimate sentence. Without first discussing whether the district court properly calculated an advisory Guidelines sentence (which includes the proper application of departures at step two), the court’s opinion jumps right to the analysis of whether the ultimate sentence was reasonable (step three). It further fails to recognize the differences between departures and non-Guidelines sentences by relying on United States v. Hacker, 450 F.3d 808 (8th Cir.2006), a departure case, to conclude that Zeigler’s non-Guidelines sentence was reasonable under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). (Supra at 5.) When the court does address the departure issue, it again conflates the separate inquiries by following its conclusion that the district court’s failure to address the Government’s request for a departure was harmless error with a statement that Zeigler failed to establish that his ultimate sentence was unreasonable. (Id. at 6.)
As we have explained many times since Booker, the district court must determine a “Guidelines sentence” before applying the § 3553(a) factors to arrive at a final sentence. The Guidelines sentence includes a calculation of the appropriate advisory Guidelines range (step one), as well as a determination of whether any departures apply (step two). Once the district court determines the advisory Guidelines sentencing range (as modified by any departure determination it may make), it then considers the § 3553(a) factors in deciding whether to sentence the defendant within the identified advisory Guidelines range or to a non-Guidelines sentence (step three). Haack, 403 F.3d at 1003; see also United States v. Ture, 450 F.3d 352, 356 (8th Cir.2006) (applying Haack methodology); United States v. Sitting Bear, 436 F.3d 929, 934-35 (8th Cir.2006) (same); United States v. Denton, 434 F.3d 1104, 1114 (8th Cir.2006) (same).
Generally, if the district court errs in applying the Guidelines at step one or fails to consider a requested departure at step two, we cannot conduct a reasonableness review because the district court’s critical starting point, a correctly determined advisory Guidelines range, may be flawed. See United States v. Smith, 450 F.3d 856, 862 (8th Cir.2006) (remanding for resentencing where the district court failed to rule on the Government’s request for an obstruction of justice enhancement); United States v. Mashek, 406 F.3d 1012, 1015 (8th Cir.2005) (“The duty to remand all sentences imposed as a result of an incorrect application of the guidelines exists independently of whether we would find the resulting sentence reasonable under the standard of review announced in Booker.”). However, we have continued to apply prudential doctrines, including harmless error review, to a district court’s failure to properly apply the Guidelines, including departures. Sitting Bear, 436 F.3d at 935; Mashek, 406 F.3d at 1017. In Mashek, the district court’s failure to properly apply a downward adjustment was not harmless to the defen*820dant’s appeal of her sentence. On the other hand, the district court’s failure to consider an upward departure in Sitting Bear was harmless as to the defendant, who was “ ‘deprived merely of the opportunity to receive an upward departure and, perhaps, a longer sentence.’” Sitting Bear, 436 F.3d at 935 (quoting United States v. Long Soldier, 431 F.3d 1120, 1122 (8th Cir.2005)).
The district court’s failure to rule on the Government’s motion for an upward departure in this case is similar to the failure in Sitting Bear and was harmless to Zeigler, the appellant here. Had the district court granted the Government’s motion, our reasonableness review would have involved comparing the imposed 24r-month sentence to a higher advisory Guidelines range than the 0 to 6-month range arrived at by the district court without ruling on the departure motion, a much more difficult task for Zeigler. See United States v. Gall, 446 F.3d 884, 889 (8th Cir.2006) (“How compelling that justification [for a non-Guidelines sentence] must be is proportional to the extent of the difference between the advisory range and the sentence imposed.” (internal marks omitted)).
It is my view that we must be careful not to commingle the review of a district court’s failure to grant a departure with the § 3553(a) reasonableness review. Because an ultimate sentence is reasonable does not, in and of itself, make the failure to rule on a departure motion harmless. Departures are based on specific sections of Chapter 5, Part K of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines (USSG) Manual and USSG § 4A1.3. Reasonableness of the ultimate sentence is based on the statutory elements contained in § 3553(a). While the two may sometimes overlap, circuit courts, as well as district courts, would do well not to make post-Booker sentencing any more confusing than necessary by conflating the two distinct analyses. See Nancy J. King, Reasonableness Review After Booker, 43 Houston L.Rev. 325, 327 (2006) (“[R]ather than skipping over allegedly faulty assumptions or applications and heading straight to the reasonableness of the sentence imposed, appellate courts must first sort out the probability that any error the judge made in calculating the guidelines range and permissible departures affected the sentence that was selected.”).
Because the error was harmless, and the 24-month non-Guidelines sentence is more than reasonable, I concur in the judgment of the court.