Legal Commentary

Supreme Court Grants Cert, Vacates Sentencing Opinion

By Jeralyn

The Supreme Court today granted cert in a 10th Circuit sentencing guideline case. (Order here, pdf). The case is U.S. v. Garcia-Lara, 499 F.3d 1133 (10th Cir. 2007). It was a terrible decision that held district courts have to find something unusual about the defendant or his case in order to vary from the Guidelines. It's a meth case where the trial court departed below the guidelines to impose 140 months and the 10th Circuit reversed. (See below the fold for facts.)

Not only did the Supreme Court today accept cert on the case, it vacated the opinion and remanded the case for further proceedings in light of Gall v. U.S. The Supreme Court case number is 07-9799.

[Hat tip to the Colorado Federal Defender's office for the information.]

From the now vacated 10th Circuit opinion:

Defendant-Appellee Guadalupe Garcia-Lara pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). Because Mr. Garcia-Lara had two prior convictions for controlled substance offenses, the "career offender" enhancement applied to his advisory sentence under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines ("U.S.S.G." or "Guidelines"). See U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1. Believing the career offender enhancement overstated Mr. Garcia-Lara's criminal history, the District Court sentenced him to a below-Guidelines sentence of 140 months' imprisonment. The Government appeals that sentence as substantively unreasonable. Exercising jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3731, we vacate Mr. Garcia-Lara's sentence and remand for resentencing.

...The U.S. Probation Office prepared a Presentence Investigation Report ("PSR") in anticipation of Mr. Garcia-Lara's sentencing. The PSR reported a criminal history category of V and an initial base offense level of 32. Because two of Mr. Garcia-Lara's prior convictions were for controlled substance offenses as defined in U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(b), the PSR applied the "career offender" provision of the Guidelines, U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1(b)(A), raising his criminal history category to VI and his base offense level to 37. After applying a three-level reduction to the offense level for acceptance of responsibility, the PSR concluded Mr. Garcia-Lara had a total offense level of 34 and a criminal history category of VI, resulting in an advisory Guidelines sentence of 262 to 327 months' imprisonment.

Applying 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), the District Court concluded that a sentence of 262 months, at the bottom of the advisory Guidelines range, over-represented Mr. Garcia-Lara's criminal history, resulting in a sentence greater than necessary to accomplish the goals of § 3553(a). Accordingly, the court sentenced Mr. Garcia-Lara as if the career offender enhancement did not apply. Noting that the advisory Guidelines sentence for a non-career offender would be 140 to 175 months' imprisonment, the District Court sentenced Mr. Garcia-Lara to 140 months.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 28, 2008 (boomark / email).