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DISTRICT COURT PUNT BLOCKED BY 10TH CIRCUIT
In 2004, Tony Burris was sentenced to 262 months on a crack cocaine charge, the low end of his Guidelines sentencing range. After the First Step Act was passed, Tony applied for his retroactive Fair Sentencing Act reduced sentence under First Step Section 404.
The government opposed the motion, arguing that Tony’s Guidelines range remained the same because the calculation should be based on the quantity of crack cocaine attributed to him in the Presentence Report (typically stratospheric) rather than the smaller amount charged in the indictment. Recognizing that the parties raised an issue that had not yet been addressed by the 10th Circuit, the district court declined to resolve it and instead held that it would deny relief to Tony regardless of the correct Guidelines calculation.
Last week, the 10th Circuit reversed, holding that the district court was obligated to calculate Tony’s revised Guidelines range before denying relief on his Section 404 motion. “A defendant’s Guidelines range is the starting point and the initial benchmark of sentencing,” the Circuit ruled, and “a district court should begin all sentencing proceedings by correctly calculating the applicable Guidelines range.”
The government argued that any error was harmless because the district court “looked at both proposed Guidelines ranges and concluded that it would deny the motion under either” one. The 10th rejected that contention, holding that while the district court may have said it would deny relief “whatever the result” of the correct Guidelines calculation, “our court has rejected the notion that district courts can insulate sentencing decisions from review by making such statements.” Here, the Circuit held, “the district court’s error, by its very nature, was not harmless; the district court’s exercise of discretion was untethered from the correct calculation of Tony’s revised Guidelines range.
United States v. Burris, Case No. 19-6122, 2022 U.S.App. LEXIS 8363 (10th Cir., Mar 30, 2022)
– Thomas L. Root