United States v. Reed, 10th Cir. (2005)

F I L E D
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
United States Court of Appeals

Tenth Circuit
TENTH CIRCUIT
August 29, 2005
PATRICK FISHER
Clerk
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
No. 04-3415
AGNES REED,
Defendant-Appellant.
(D.C. No. 04-CR-20041-01-JWL)

(D. Kan.)
ORDER AND JUDGMENT

Before BRISCOE, LUCERO,
and MURPHY , Circuit Judges.
Agnes Reed pled guilty to, and was convicted of, one count of distributing
methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(c), and
860(a), and 18 U.S.C. 2. She appeals her forty-six month sentence in light of
United States v. Booker, ___ U.S. ___, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005).
Exercising jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1291, we conclude that the
This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the
doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. The court
generally disfavors the citation of orders and judgments; nevertheless, an order
and judgment may be cited under the terms and conditions of 10th Cir. R. 36.3.
*
government has not met its burden of proving that the district courts Booker
error was harmless and we REMAND for resentencing. 1
I.
After a series of seven controlled buys in 2003 conducted by a Kansas
Bureau of Investigation Agent and a confidential informant (CI), Mrs. Reed was
charged in an Indictment with eight counts of distributing methamphetamine
within 1,000 feet of a public secondary school, in violation of 21 U.S.C.
841(a)(1) and 860(a) and 18 U.S.C. 2. Pursuant to a plea agreement with the
government, Mrs. Reed pled guilty to Count 1 of the Indictment on July 6, 2004.
At her plea hearing Mrs. Reed admitted that she was accountable for 131.06
grams of methamphetamine the amount sold to the Agent and CI, plus the
amount subsequently recovered from a search of her residence.
The presentence investigation report (PSR), however, determined that in
addition to the quantities of methamphetamine she admitted to in her plea, Mrs.
Reed was responsible for 1,190.7 grams of methamphetamine that she allegedly
sold to the CI from 1999 through 2003. The PSR concluded that with the
additional amount of methamphetamine Mrs. Reeds total offense level was 29
After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined
unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist the determination of
this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2); 10th Cir. R. 34.1.9(G). The case is
therefore ordered submitted without oral argument.
1
and her criminal history category was I, resulting in a range of imprisonment of

87108 months. Mrs. Reed objected to the PSRs inclusion of the additional
1,190.7 grams, citing the Supreme Courts decision in Blakely v Washington, 542
U.S. 296 (2004), and noting that without the additional quantities the resulting
range of imprisonment would have been 4657 months. ROA, Vol. 2 at 2223.
At sentencing, Mrs. Reed again raised Blakely arguments in objecting to
the enhancements. She also moved for downward departures based upon her age,
health and the sentencing disparity between her prospective sentence and the
sentences imposed on her co-defendants prosecuted in state court, stating that
each factor put her case outside of the heartland of the guideline range for
similar cases. Pursuant to the plea agreement, the government also filed a motion
for a six-level downward departure for substantial assistance to authorities under
United States Sentencing Guidelines (U.S.S.G.) 5K1.1, and requested a sentence
at the low end of the guideline range. The resulting guideline range after the
inclusion of the 5K1.1 departure was 4657 months. 2 The district court rejected
Mrs. Reeds Blakely challenge, explaining that until the Supreme Court tells us
to the contrary, I am going to continue to apply the guidelines. ROA, Vol. I,
Doc. 46 at 4. The district court then applied the PSRs enhancements and denied
We note that without the district courts enhancements based upon the
additional 1,190.7 grams of methamphetamine, Mrs. Reeds guideline range after
applying the 5K1.1 departure would have been 2430 months.
2
Mrs. Reeds motion for downward departures. The district court did grant the
governments 5K1.1 motion, finding it generous but appropriate for the
circumstances surrounding her assistance. Id. at 35. It then sentenced Mrs. Reed
at the bottom of the guideline range to a term of imprisonment of 46 months, a
term of supervised release of three years and a $100 special assessment.
While Mrs. Reeds appeal was pending, the Supreme Court issued its
decision in Booker, which held that Blakely applies to the Sentencing Guidelines
so that [a]ny fact (other than a prior conviction) which is necessary to support a
sentence exceeding the maximum authorized by the facts established by plea of
guilty or a jury verdict must be admitted by the defendant or proved to a jury
beyond a reasonable doubt. 125 S.Ct. at 756. Mrs. Reed now argues that her
sentence should be reversed and remanded in light of Booker because she did not
admit facts regarding relevant conduct used to increase her sentence.
II.
Mrs. Reed contends, and the government concedes, that the district court
committed constitutional Booker error when it increased her offense level by four
levels based on the factual finding that she had sold an additional 1,190.7 grams
of methamphetamine to the CI from 1999 through 2003. 3 The parties also agree
that Mrs. Reed properly preserved her Booker claim by timely raising her Blakely
3
We express no opinion on the validity of the governments concession.

4
objections in the district court. The government contends, however, that the error
was harmless.
Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(a) provides that [a]ny error, defect, irregularity, or
variance that does not affect substantial rights must be disregarded. In the
context of a misapplication of the guidelines, the Supreme Court held that once
the court of appeals has decided that the district court misapplied the Guidelines,
a remand is appropriate unless the reviewing court concludes, on the record as a
whole, that the error was harmless, i.e., that the error did not affect the district
courts selection of the sentence imposed. United States v. Labastida-Segura,
396 F.3d 1140, 114243 (10th Cir. 2005) (quoting Williams v. United States, 503
U.S. 193, 203 (1992)). Where the error was preserved in the district court, the
government bears the burden of demonstrating that error was harmless. United
States v. Riccardi, 405 F.3d 852, 875 (10th Cir. 2005). Furthermore, as the
government points out in its brief, because the error is of constitutional
dimension, the government must establish that the error was harmless beyond a
reasonable doubt. See Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24 (1967) ([B]efore
a federal constitutional error can be held harmless, the court must be able to
declare a belief that it was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.).
The government argues that the district courts error was harmless because
the district court considered and rejected Mrs. Reeds departure motion based on
5
her age, health and sentencing disparity. The government relies on a particular
passage, which it argues shows that the district court acknowledged that it had
discretion to depart downward, but refused to do so:
I recognize the Court has discretion under certain circumstances to
depart downward, and since this is not a situation which I fail to
recognize that discretion, but I do not believe that this case is
outside the heartland other than what is truly an unusual fact
that the defendant was some 64 years on age to 68 years of age
during the time period that this activity took place. . . . [T]he age
of the defendant here, although unusual, is not in my personal view
so extreme and different as to take this outside what I would
consider the heartland. . . . [T]he health of a defendant is not of
such a degree that it is a factor that the Court would consider
beyond the heartland.
ROA, Vol. I, Doc. 46 at 3537. The district court also went on to state that Mrs.
Reeds complaint of sentencing disparity was not something which leads me to
believe that if there is disparity, it is outside the heartland . . . it is not something
that the drafters of the Guidelines didnt think it might happen. Id. at 39.
According to the government, these statements show that the district court would
not reduce Mrs. Reeds sentence on remand, thus rendering the error harmless.
The district courts repeated reference to the heartland, however, controverts
the governments contention that it has met its burden of demonstrating that the
error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
Before Booker, departures not specifically enumerated in the guidelines
were permissible only if they fell within the exception in 3553(b), which stated
6
that the district court shall impose a sentence within the guidelines range unless
mitigating circumstances existed that were not adequately taken into
consideration by the Sentencing Commission in formulating the guidelines. 18
U.S.C. 3553(b). The district court could consider only the sentencing
guidelines, policy statements, and official commentary of the Sentencing
Commission in determining whether the Commission adequately accounted for a
particular circumstance. Id.; see also U.S.S.G. 5K2.0(a)(1). As the Supreme
Court explained, a district court could depart without abusing its discretion if the
case was unusual enough for it to fall outside the heartland of cases in the
Guideline at issue, based on whether the Sentencing Commission had forbidden,
encouraged, or discouraged consideration of certain relevant facts. Koon v.
United States, 518 U.S. 81, 98100 (1996). The Commission, however, had made
clear that such cases w[ould] be extremely rare. U.S.S.G. 5K2.0 comment.
Accordingly, we would reverse a district courts downward departure as an abuse
of discretion if we concluded that the circumstances were not so extraordinary
as to place the case outside the heartland. See e.g., United States v.
Reyes-Rodriguez, 344 F.3d 1071, 107576 (10th Cir. 2003). Moreover, our
review of downward departures afforded district courts little deference with the
enactment of the PROTECT Act, Pub.L. 108-21 (2003), in effect at the time of
Mrs. Reeds sentencing, which raised the standard of review in sentencing
7
departure cases from a unitary abuse of discretion standard to application of a

de novo standard of review. United States v. Jones, 332 F.3d 1294, 1299 (10th
Cir.2003).
Booker, however, excised 3553(b) and its narrow prescription for when
departures are warranted, along with 18 U.S.C. 3742(e), as amended by the
PROTECT Act. See Booker, 125 S.Ct. at 764. District courts now have more
discretion to tailor sentences to individual circumstances of a defendant, looking
to such factors articulated in 18 U.S.C. 3553(a), which have a new vitality
after Booker. United States v. Trujillo-Terrazas, 405 F.3d 814, 819 (10th Cir.
2005). Thus, the district courts denial of Mrs. Reeds motion for a downward
departure because her health, age and disparate sentence did not distinguish her
case from the heartland of cases covered by the guidelines is not only
unsurprising given the legal landscape of the time, but it sheds no light on
whether it might have granted the very same motion had it known that Booker
establishes 3553(a) as a primary point of reference and effectively allows
greater latitude in making departure decisions. As we noted in Labastida-Segura,
Here, where [the sentence imposed] was already at the bottom of
the guidelines range, to say that the district court would have
imposed the same sentence given the new legal landscape (even
after consulting the Sentencing Guidelines in an advisory capacity)
places us in the zone of speculation and conjecture we simply
do not know what the district court would have done after hearing
from the parties. Though an appellate court may judge whether a
district court exercised its discretion (and whether it abused that
8
discretion), it cannot exercise the district courts discretion.

396 F.3d at 1143. This case presents effectively the same uncertainties presented
by Labastida-Segura.
As a final matter, we conclude this case is distinguishable from our recent
decision in United States v. Ollson, 413 F.3d 1119 (10th Cir. 2005). In Ollson,
we held that a non-constitutional Booker error (i.e., the application of the
Sentencing Guidelines in a mandatory fashion) was harmless because the district
court in that case granted the governments motion to reduce the defendants
sentence under U.S.S.G. 5K1.1 for his substantial assistance in an investigation.
In doing so, we noted that the district court had discretion under 5K1.1 to depart
to the degree it found appropriate, regardless of the specific recommendation of
the government. Id. at 1121. We further emphasized there was [n]othing in the
record [to] overcome[] the presumption that the [district] court was aware of its
discretion. Id. Here, in contrast, the record on appeal indicates that the district
court believed its discretion to depart under 5K1.1 was more limited. In
particular, the district court stated: I dont think that the 5K1.1 motion is simply
opening the door to the judge and then saying, well, now I have the opportunity to
impose whatever sentence I feel is appropriate. ROA, Vol. I, Doc. 46, at 34.
In sum, we conclude that the government has failed to show that the district
courts error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
9
III.
Accordingly, we REMAND the defendants sentence to the district court
with direction to VACATE defendants sentence and resentence in light of
Booker.
Entered for the Court
Mary Beck Briscoe
Circuit Judge
10

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F I L E D

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

United States Court of Appeals

August 29, 2005

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

(D.C. No. 04-CR-20041-01-JWL)

ORDER AND JUDGMENT

and MURPHY , Circuit Judges.

and her criminal history category was I, resulting in a range of imprisonment of

We express no opinion on the validity of the governments concession.

departure cases from a unitary abuse of discretion standard to application of a

discretion), it cannot exercise the district courts discretion.

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