U.S. v. Madden

• Decision Date: 25 January 2008
• Docket Number: No. 05-4304.,No. 06-3736.,05-4304.,06-3736.
• Citation: 515 F.3d 601
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Tyrone MADDEN (05-4304) and Diana Blaine Brown (06-3736), Defendants-Appellants,
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

515 F.3d 601

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Tyrone MADDEN (05-4304) and Diana Blaine Brown (06-3736), Defendants-Appellants,

No. 05-4304.

No. 06-3736.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

Submitted: November 1, 2007.

Decided and Filed: January 25, 2008.

ON BRIEF:

Nathan A. Ray, Akron, Ohio, Terry H. Gilbert, Friedman & Gilbert, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellants. Robert J. Patton, Assistant United States Attorney, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellee.

Before SILER, MOORE, and GILMAN, Circuit Judges.

GILMAN, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which SILER, J., joined. Moore, J. (p. 614), delivered a separate opinion concurring in Case No. 05-4304 and dissenting in Case No. 06-3736.

OPINION

RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge.

Tyrone Madden and Diana Blaine Brown were both charged with one count of conspiring to possess phencyclidine (PCP) with the intent to distribute the drug. Madden was separately charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was later charged in a superseding information with one count of conspiracy to import heroin into the United States and one count of bank fraud. Both defendants entered guilty pleas. At Madden's sentencing hearing, the original indictment was dismissed and Madden was sentenced to 78 months of imprisonment. The district court also imposed an additional eight-month sentence, to be served consecutively, for violating the terms of his supervised release related to a previous federal conviction. Brown, on the other hand, pled guilty to the charge in the original indictment, but she then failed to maintain contact with pretrial services and became a fugitive. When she surrendered over a year later, the district court held a sentencing hearing and sentenced her to 37 months of imprisonment.

Madden appeals the district court's judgment because he asserts that the court did not have jurisdiction to sanction him for his prior supervised-release violation. Brown appeals her sentence on the basis that the district court failed to adequately consider her request for a reduced sentence. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the district court's judgment in both cases.

I. BACKGROUND

On December 15, 2004, a federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment against Madden, Brown., and another alleged conspirator. Count one charged Madden and Brown with conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute more than 1,000 grams of PCP, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846. Madden was also charged with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). This court ordered that their appeals be consolidated for briefing and submission.

A. Madden's conviction and sentence

Six months after the return of the initial indictment, the government filed a superseding information against Madden. The information charged Madden with one count of conspiracy to import heroin into the United States, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 960(a)(1) and 963, and one count of bank fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1344. Madden pled guilty to both counts pursuant to a negotiated plea agreement, and the government agreed to dismiss the counts from the original indictment.

The district court sentenced Madden to 78 months' imprisonment for the two counts in the superseding information. In addition, the court addressed a previous violation of the conditions of his supervised release stemming from a 1998 federal conviction for bank fraud. The court concluded that it had jurisdiction, under 18 U.S.C. § 3583(i), to sanction Madden for this violation. Furthermore, Madden conceded that a violation of his supervised release had indeed occurred. The court then imposed an 8-month prison term and ordered that it be served consecutively to the 78-month prison term. Madden now challenges the district court's ruling on the supervised-release violation, claiming that the court did not have jurisdiction to impose a sanction under § 3583(i).

B. Brown's conviction and sentence

In February of 2005, Brown pled guilty to the first charge of the indictment pursuant to a negotiated agreement. She then violated the terms of her pretrial release both by failing to make contact with the court-appointed psychologist and by not appearing for random drug tests as required by the court. The court issued a summons requiring Brown to appear for a hearing on February 22, 2005, but Brown did not respond and could not be found. She remained a fugitive until February of 2006, at which point she turned herself in.

For the most part, the Presentence Report (PSR) filed by Brown's probation officer tracked the Guidelines calculations contained in the plea agreement. The government, among other things, agreed to seek a four-point downward departure for substantial assistance under USSG § 5K1.1 and a three-point reduction for acceptance of responsibility pursuant to USSG § 3E1.1. But the PSR recommended a two-level upward adjustment for obstruction of justice because Brown had willfully failed to appear for court-ordered treatment and for her scheduled hearing.

Brown, in turn, requested a downward departure pursuant to USSG § 5K2.0. She claimed that she was eligible for a reduced sentence because of her undiagnosed depression and diminished capacity, her two young children, the fact that she was pregnant when she surrendered, and the "aberrant" nature of her behavior. At the sentencing hearing, the district court granted all of the government's requested reductions and enhancements and calculated the appropriate Guidelines range to be 30 to 37 months of imprisonment. The court then addressed the § 3553(a) factors and imposed a sentence of 37 months' imprisonment without explicitly ruling on Brown's motion. When Brown asked the district court to make a ruling on the motion, the court denied it, noting "I think I've given her the consideration as it relates for acceptance of responsibility. I think in that view that ruling was giving her more than fair consideration." Brown appeals her sentence, arguing that the district court's failure to consider and grant her motion was unreasonable.

II. ANALYSIS

A. The district court's jurisdiction over Madden's supervised-release violation

1. 18 U.S.C, § 3583(i) and the facts underlying Madden's offense

Under 18 U.S.C. § 3583, courts are given the authority to include as part of a defendant's sentence a term of supervised release after imprisonment. Courts also have the ability, under § 3583(i), to revoke supervised release and impose new sanctions for supervised-release violations after that term has expired:

The power of the court to revoke a term of supervised release for violation of a condition of supervised release, and to order the defendant to serve a term of imprisonment and, subject to the limitations in subsection (h), a further term of supervised release, extends beyond the expiration of the term of supervised release for any period reasonably necessary for the adjudication of matters arising before its expiration if, before its expiration, a warrant or summons has been issued on the basis of an allegation of such a violation.

The Ninth Circuit has expounded on this statutory language, explaining that

a district court can revoke a term of supervised release after that term has expired if: (1) a violation warrant or summons was issued before the term expired; and (2) the delay between the end of the term of supervised release and the district court's revocation order is "reasonably necessary for the adjudication of matters arising before [the term's] expiration."

United States v. Garrett, 253 F.3d 443, 446 (9th Cir.2001) (alteration in original).

Madden's supervised-release violation arises from different circumstances than the conviction that originally brought him before the district court in this case. Before addressing the merits of Madden's claim on appeal, we must therefore briefly address the factual background underlying his supervised-release violation.

In December of 1998, Madden was convicted of bank fraud and sentenced to 14 months of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release. His term of supervised release began on November 24, 2000. Between 2001 and 2005, Madden was indicted a number of times in both state and federal proceedings for various gun- and drug-related crimes. He was also in federal custody in Baltimore for over two years of that time because of a trial in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland based on a three-count indictment for conspiracy to import heroin, importation of heroin, and distribution of heroin. Madden argues that his term of supervised release was not tolled during this period in custody and thus expired in November of 2003. The government, on the other hand, contends that his supervised release was tolled and that the term therefore continued until February of 2005. We have no need to resolve this tolling issue, however, because both parties agree that a warrant was issued on the basis of a supervised-release violation in September of 2002.

2. Jurisdiction to sanction Madden under 18 U.S.C. § 3583(i)

Madden makes three arguments to support his claim that the district court lacked jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 3583(i) to sanction him based on his prior supervised-release violation. One of his arguments attacks the reasonableness of the delay between the expiration of his supervised-release term and the district court's revocation order, while the other two call into question the validity of the September 2002 warrant under § 3583(i). The parties also disagree about which standard we should apply in reviewing these arguments. We will address each of Madden's arguments, and their appropriate standard of review, in turn.

At the outset, Madden argues that the district court did not have jurisdiction to sentence him for his prior supervised-release violation because the hearing was not brought within...