United States v. Bishawi
United States v. Bishawi
Opinion of the Court
Order
This is a fourth appeal in Ahmad Bishawi’s criminal prosecution. Two years ago we described the third as the “final” appeal, but the district court then vacated and reentered the sentence following the prosecutor’s confession that Bishawi had received ineffective assistance of counsel. We are skeptical about this maneuver, which appears to be an effort to provide Bishawi with an additional appeal, contravening limits on our jurisdiction. It is unnecessary to pursue this line of inquiry, however, because Bishawi is not entitled to relief on any view of matters.
As our prior opinions and orders discuss, Bishawi has been sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for cocaine offenses. He wants to argue in this belated proceeding that the district court should not have credited evidence about the quantity of drugs involved. That is a loser (no wonder counsel omitted it earlier), for appellate courts do not second-guess credibility resolutions and other findings of fact made by district judges. There can be no doubt that the evidence, now taken in the light most favorable to the district judge’s findings, supports a conclusion that Bishawi conspired to distribute at least 50 grams of crack.
The statutory maximum for Bishawi was life in prison, given his prior convictions, which Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224, 118 S.Ct. 1219, 140 L.Ed.2d 350 (1998), holds may be evaluated by a judge rather than a jury. Moreover, under 21 U.S.C. § 841 the lowest maximum sentence for a cocaine offense of any quantity by a first offender is 20 years’ imprisonment; thus the rule of Apprendi is not implicated by Bishawi’s 20-year sentence. We do not have a situation in which a mandatory minimum, computed under Almendarez-Torres and Harris, exceeds the maximum sentence authorized by the jury’s findings.
Affirmed
Reference
- Full Case Name
- United States v. Ahmad BISHAWI
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published