-
10-3018 United States v. Williams UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT SUMMARY ORDER RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY CITING A SUMMARY ORDER MUST SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL. 1 At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals 2 for the Second Circuit, held at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan 3 United States Courthouse, 500 Pearl Street, in the City of 4 New York, on the 18th day of January, two thousand twelve. 5 6 PRESENT: DENNIS JACOBS, 7 Chief Judge, 8 RICHARD C. WESLEY, 9 SUSAN L. CARNEY, 10 Circuit Judges. 11 12 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -X 13 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 14 15 Appellee, 16 17 -v.- 10-3018 18 19 DWANDELL WILLIAMS, 20 21 Defendant-Appellant. 22 23 24 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -X 25 26 FOR APPELLANT: Steven Y. Yurowitz 27 New York, NY 28 1 1 FOR APPELLEE: Monica J. Richards (Stephan J. 2 Baczynski, on the brief) 3 Assistant United States 4 Attorney, for William J. Hochul, 5 Jr., United States Attorney, 6 Western District of New York, 7 Buffalo, NY 8 9 Appeal from judgments of the United States District 10 Court for the Western District of New York (Arcara, J.). 11 12 UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED 13 AND DECREED that the district court’s judgments are 14 AFFIRMED. 15 16 Dwandell Williams appeals from judgments entered in the 17 United States District Court for the Western District of New 18 York convicting him upon a guilty plea of [a] possessing 19 with the intent to distribute cocaine base in violation of 20 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and [b] violating the terms of his 21 supervised release. He was sentenced to consecutive terms 22 of imprisonment of 210 and 12 months, respectively. We 23 assume the parties’ familiarity with the underlying facts, 24 the procedural history, and the issues presented for review. 25 26 [1] Williams argues that he was deprived of his Sixth 27 Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel at 28 his sentencing. However, having waived his right to appeal 29 any sentence within or below the Guidelines range, he may 30 not now do an end-run around his plea agreements on the 31 ground of ineffective assistance. “Waivers of the right to 32 appeal a sentence are presumptively enforceable.” United 33 States v. Arevalo,
628 F.3d 93, 98 (2d Cir. 2010). So long 34 as they are knowing and voluntary, such waivers “must be 35 enforced because, if they are not, the covenant not to 36 appeal becomes meaningless and would cease to have value as 37 a bargaining chip in the hands of defendants.” United 38 States v. Granik,
386 F.3d 404, 412 (2d Cir. 2004) (internal 39 quotation marks omitted). A defendant may not “dress up” a 40 challenge to the correctness of his sentence as a Sixth 41 Amendment claim for ineffective assistance of counsel by 42 arguing the deficiency of his counsel’s performance “not at 43 the time of the plea, but at sentencing.” United States v. 44 Djelevic,
161 F.3d 104, 107 (2d Cir. 1998) (per curiam). 2 1 Here, Williams’ sentence fell within or below the Guidelines 2 ranges specified in the plea agreements, and therefore 3 triggered the appellate waiver provisions of those 4 agreements. His arguments as to the adequacy of his 5 attorney’s performance at sentencing are consequently 6 foreclosed. See
id. 7 8[2] Williams also argues that he was not advised that the 9 Guidelines recommended an upward departure on the supervised 10 release violation because his original sentence reflected a 11 downward departure. But Williams was aware that he could 12 receive a prison term of up to five years for his supervised 13 release violation. Moreover, Williams was not prejudiced by 14 his attorney’s failure to mention the impact of the downward 15 departure at his original sentencing, since he ultimately 16 received a below-Guidelines sentence. See Strickland v. 17 Washington,
466 U.S. 668, 687 (1984). Williams therefore 18 has not shown that his attorney was ineffective in entering 19 into the plea agreement. 20 21 We have considered Williams’ remaining arguments and 22 find them to be without merit. For the foregoing reasons, 23 the judgments of the district court are hereby AFFIRMED. 24 25 26 27 FOR THE COURT: 28 CATHERINE O’HAGAN WOLFE, CLERK 29 3
Document Info
Docket Number: 10-3018
Citation Numbers: 448 F. App'x 156
Judges: Jacobs, Wesley, Carney
Filed Date: 1/18/2012
Precedential Status: Non-Precedential
Modified Date: 11/5/2024