United States v. Edmundo Rosales
United States v. Edmundo Rosales
Concurring Opinion
concurring.
I concur fully in the majority’s assessment that Edmundo Rosales’s sentence is not an unreasonable one. I further agree that, based on our circuit precedent, Rosales’s claim regarding the constitutionality of the guidelines is foreclosed by his plea agreement waiver of the right to appeal that issue. In United States v. Killgo, 397 F.3d 628, 629 n. 2 (8th Cir. 2005), our court noted that a waiver of appellate rights in a plea agreement would preclude the defendant from raising a Booker
As recognized by our court en banc in United States v. Andis, 333 F.3d 886, 891 (8th Cir. 2003), appellate waivers are not iron-clad; they are not binding where a miscarriage of justice would result from their enforcement. Andis and other circuit authority makes clear that one such instance of a miscarriage of justice is where a sentence is illegal, in that the sentence is beyond the maximum statutory penalty. Id. at 892 (citing United States v. Peltier, 312 F.3d 938, 942; United States v. Greatwalker, 285 F.3d 727, 729 (8th Cir. 2002)). Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296,-, 124 S.Ct. 2531, 2537, 159 L.Ed.2d 403 (2004), counsels that the statutory maximum is the sentence a court may impose based on admitted conduct or facts proven to a jury. Reading these cases together, Rosales’s appellate argument that the court calculated the drug quantity attributable to him based on conduct that was not admitted is an argument that his sentence was beyond the statutory maximum and thus illegal. This is precisely the type of appeal that the Andis court held could be brought despite a waiver of appellate rights. Because Killgo remains the law of our circuit at this point, however, I concur in the majority’s holding that Rosales cannot pursue a Booker claim because of his waiver.
. United States v. Booker, -U.S. -, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005).
Opinion of the Court
Edmundo Rosales pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. The district court
In his plea agreement, Rosales “expressly waive[d] the right to appeal his sentence, directly or collaterally, on any ground except for an upward departure by the sentencing judge, a sentence in excess of the statutory maximum, or a sentence in violation of law apart from the Sentencing Guidelines.” This waiver was far reaching, and Rosales also “agree[d] not to appeal or otherwise challenge the constitutionality or legality of the Sentencing Guidelines.” Rosales nevertheless now seeks to argue on appeal that the district court erred in its sentencing findings and its application of the guidelines.
Rosales claims that the evidence connecting him to 11 kilograms of cocaine and 360 pounds of marijuana was unreliable and that those amounts should not have been attributed to him. By his calculation, he should have been found responsible for less than two kilograms of cocaine, for a base offense level of 26, and his sentencing range should have been 63-78 months. Since his appeal does not challenge any upward departure, a sentence above the statutory maximum, or a nonguideline error, we conclude it is covered by the waiver in his plea agreement.
When a defendant enters a waiver of appeal knowingly and voluntarily as Rosales concedes he did, the waiver will be enforced absent a miscarriage of justice. United States v. Andis, 333 F.3d 886, 891 (8th Cir. 2003) (en banc). Rosales argues that the sentence he received is a miscarriage of justice because the district court’s finding of drug quantity rested on “flimsy” evidence. We have recognized that the miscarriage of justice exception is “extremely narrow” and designed to correct sentences not authorized by the judgment of conviction or outside the statutory range. Id. at 892. There is no indication that a miscarriage of justice occurred in this case from the district court’s weighing of the evidence presented at the sentencing hearing or its calculation of the amount of drugs for which Rosales was responsible.
We review the sentence imposed for unreasonableness, guided by the factors in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). United States v. Booker, — U.S.-,---, 125 S.Ct. 738, 765-66, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005); United States v. Killgo, 397 F.3d 628, 630 n. 4 (8th Cir. 2005) (reviewing sentence for unreasonableness despite plea waiver that made Booker’s Sixth Amendment holding inapplicable). We conclude that the sentence reflects “the nature and circumstances of the offense and the history and characteristics of the defendant,” § 3553(a)(1), and that the inclusion of relevant conduct relates to the need to “protect the public from further crimes of the defendant,” § 3553(a)(2)(C), and the need to “avoid unwarranted sentence disparities,” § 3553(a)(6). See Killgo, 397 F.3d at 631 n. 5.
. The Honorable Dean Whipple, Chief Judge, United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
. In an opinion issued on November 2, 2004, we affirmed the judgment of the district court but indicated that the mandate would not issue until after the Supreme Court released its opinions in United States v. Booker and United States v. Fanfan and thus denied counsel’s request to withdraw. After the Court issued United States v. Booker,-U.S.-, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005), on January 12, 2005, counsel submitted supplemental briefing about Booker’s effect on Rosales' case, which we considered before deciding our final disposition of the case.
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