U.S. v. Rojas

• Decision Date: 06 July 2011
• Docket Number: No. 10–14662Non–Argument Calendar.,10–14662Non–Argument Calendar.
• Citation: 23 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C 81,645 F.3d 1234
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee,v.Carmelina Vera ROJAS, Defendant–Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

645 F.3d 1234

23 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C 81

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee,

v.Carmelina Vera ROJAS, Defendant–Appellant.

No. 10–14662Non–Argument Calendar.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

July 6, 2011.

Background: Defendant pleaded guilty and was convicted in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, No. 1:10-CR-20236-AJ-2, Adalberto Jordan, J., of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute, and of distributing, cocaine base, and, though she was sentenced after enactment of the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (FSA), the district court concluded that the FSA should not apply to her offenses. Defendant appealed.

Holding: The Court of Appeals held that the FSA applies to defendants who committed crack cocaine offenses before the date of its enactment, but who are sentenced thereafter.

Reversed and remanded for resentencing.

Wilfredo A. Ferrer, Harriett Galvin, William C. Healy, Kelly S. Karase, Kathleen M. Salyer, Anne R. Schultz, U.S. Attys., Miami, FL, for Plaintiff–Appellee.

Sowmya Bharathi, Kathleen M. Williams, Fed. Pub. Defenders, Miami, FL, for Defendant–Appellant.Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.Before WILSON, MARTIN and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.PER CURIAM:

We sua sponte modify our previous opinion in this appeal to reflect recent developments in the law of the First and Seventh Circuits. See United States v. Fisher, 635 F.3d 336, 340 (7th Cir.2011); United States v. Douglas, 644 F.3d 39, 2011 WL 2120163 (1st Cir.2011).

The issue in this appeal is whether the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (“FSA”), Pub.L. No. 111–220, 124 Stat. 2372 (2010), applies to defendants who committed crack cocaine offenses before August 3, 2010, the date of its enactment, but who are sentenced thereafter. We conclude that it does.

In May 2010, Carmelina Vera Rojas pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 846 and 841(a)(1), and two counts of distributing 5 grams or more of cocaine base, in violation of § 841(a)(1). Her sentencing was scheduled for August 3, 2010, which as it so happened, was the date on which President Obama signed the FSA into law. The district court granted the parties a continuance to determine whether Vera Rojas should be sentenced under the FSA. After considering the parties' arguments, the district court concluded that the FSA should not apply to Vera Rojas's offenses; in September 2010, the court sentenced Vera Rojas to ten years' imprisonment.

On appeal, Vera Rojas argues that the district court erred in refusing to apply the FSA to her sentence. Because she had not yet been sentenced when the FSA was enacted, Vera Rojas believes that she should benefit from the FSA's provision raising the quantity of crack cocaine required to trigger a ten-year mandatory minimum sentence. Further, Vera Rojas contends that the FSA falls within recognized exceptions to the general savings statute, 1 U.S.C. § 109. Relying in large part on the general savings statute, the government contends that Congress's omission of an express retroactivity provision requires that the FSA be applied only to criminal conduct occurring after its August 3, 2010, enactment.

We conclude that the FSA applies to defendants like Vera Rojas who had not yet been sentenced by the date of the FSA's enactment. The interest in honoring clear Congressional intent, as well as principles of fairness, uniformity, and administrability, necessitate our conclusion. Accordingly, we reverse and remand to the district court for re-sentencing.

DISCUSSION

We review de novo the legal question of whether the FSA applies to defendants who had not been sentenced by the date of the FSA's enactment. See United States v. Olin Corp., 107 F.3d 1506, 1509 (11th Cir.1997).

1. The Fair Sentencing Act of 2010

The preamble to the FSA describes it as “[a]n Act To [sic] restore fairness to Federal cocaine sentencing.” The FSA sought to reduce the disparity between federal criminal penalties for crack cocaine and powder cocaine offenses by lowering the gram-penalty ratio from 100:1 to 18:1. United States v. Douglas, 746 F.Supp.2d 220, 222, 224 (D.Me.2010), aff'd, 644 F.3d 39, 2011 WL 2120163 (1st Cir.2011). To this end, the FSA amended the Controlled Substances Act and Controlled Substances Import and Export Act by raising the drug quantities required to trigger mandatory minimum sentences. See United States v. Bell, 624 F.3d 803, 814 (7th Cir.2010). Further, the FSA provided the Sentencing Commission with the emergency authority to promulgate all necessary amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines within 90 days of the FSA's August 3, 2010, enactment. FSA § 8, Pub.L. No. 111–220. Specifically, the Sentencing Commission was charged with “mak [ing] such conforming amendments to the Federal sentencing guidelines as the Commission determines necessary to achieve consistency with other guideline provisions and applicable law.” Id. The consequent amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines became effective no later than November 1, 2010.

Under the FSA, a ten-year mandatory minimum applies to first-time trafficking offenses involving 280 grams or more of crack cocaine, while a five-year mandatory minimum applies to first-time trafficking offenses involving 28 grams or more of crack cocaine. 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A)(iii), (b)(1)(B)(iii). Thus, the FSA amended the Anti–Drug Act of 1986 to lower the mandatory minimum sentence for first-time trafficking offenses involving between 50 and 280 grams of crack cocaine from ten years to five years. Compare § 841(b)(1)(A)(iii) (2006), with § 841(b)(1)(A)(iii) (2010). The FSA is silent as to whether it applies to all criminal sentencings taking place after its enactment or, conversely, to only criminal conduct occurring after its enactment.

[1] The district court sentenced Vera Rojas in September 2010 for conspiring with intent to distribute 71.8 grams of crack cocaine, among other offenses. If the court had sentenced Vera Rojas under the FSA, her offenses would have been insufficient to trigger the ten-year mandatory minimum sentencing provision. For the following reasons, we conclude that Vera Rojas's sentence is subject to the FSA's five-year mandatory minimum provision.

2. Case Law

Vera Rojas argues that this Court's statement in United States v. Gomes, 621 F.3d 1343, 1346 (11th Cir.2010) (per curiam)—“because the FSA took effect in August 2010, after appellant committed his crimes, [the general savings statute] bars the Act from affecting his punishment”—was merely dicta and is not controlling precedent. We need not consider this argument because, in any event, Gomes does not apply here. The record reveals that Gomes was indicted in July 2009 and sentenced in March 2010—nearly five months before the FSA was signed into law. The issue before the Court therefore was whether the FSA applied retroactively to lighten the defendant's existing sentence.

This appeal presents a different issue. Vera Rojas's circumstances require that we determine whether the FSA applies to a defendant who had not been sentenced when the law was enacted. The government cites published opinions from the Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Tenth Circuits, ostensibly in support of its proposition that “[e]very circuit court to have addressed the issue has concluded that the FSA may not be applied retroactively.” Like Gomes, each of those cases involved a defendant who had been charged, convicted, and sentenced before the effective date of the FSA; those defendants were arguing for the first time on appeal that the FSA should apply retroactively to a previously imposed sentence. See United States v. Carradine, 621 F.3d 575, 577–78, 580 (6th Cir.2010) (defendant indicted in July 2005 and sentenced in January 2008); Bell, 624 F.3d at 814 (Seventh Circuit stating that “[i]f Bell were sentenced today under the FSA, his distribution of 5.69 grams of crack cocaine would be insufficient to trigger the mandatory minimum sentencing provisions”); United States v. Brewer, 624 F.3d 900, 909 n. 7 (8th Cir.2010) (stating that the defendant first submitted a letter requesting re-sentencing under the FSA on August 27, 2010, where the record indicates that defendant was originally sentenced in November 2009); United States v. Lewis, 625 F.3d 1224, 1228 (10th Cir.2010) (“[The FSA] is not, however, retroactive and thus does not apply to this case. It does, on the other hand, relegate this case to a relatively short shelf-life, inasmuch as defendants being sentenced henceforth will be sentenced under a different applicable ratio.” (emphasis added)). But see United States v. Fisher, 635 F.3d 336, 340 (7th Cir.2011) (holding that the relevant date for the FSA “is the date of the underlying criminal conduct, not the date of sentencing,” but stating, “[w]e have sympathy for the two defendants here, who lost on a temporal roll of the cosmic dice and were sentenced under a structure which has now been recognized as unfair”).

[2][3] We do not disagree with our sister circuits in one major sense—absent further legislative action directing otherwise, the general savings statute prevents a defendant who was sentenced prior to the enactment of the FSA from benefitting from retroactive application. Further, we share in the well-reasoned view of the First Circuit that Congress intended for the FSA to apply immediately. See Douglas, 644 F.3d at 43–44, 2011 WL 2120163, at *4 (“It seems unrealistic to suppose that Congress strongly desired to put 18:1 guidelines in effect by November 1 even for crimes committed before the FSA but balked at giving the same defendants the benefit of the newly enacted 18:1 mandatory minimums.”).

3. The Savings Clause of 1 U.S.C. § 109

The government argues that Congress did not intend for the FSA to apply to defendants like Vera Rojas, as a contrary conclusion...