United States v. James Edward Burns

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[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
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No. 13-11293
Non-Argument Calendar
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D.C. Docket No. 7:05-cr-00003-HL-TQL-1
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
JAMES EDWARD BURNS,
Defendant-Appellant.
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Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Middle District of Georgia
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(September 16, 2013)
Before MARCUS, MARTIN and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
James Edward Burns, a federal prisoner, appeals from the district court’s
denial of his motion to reduce his sentence, filed under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) and
based on the Fair Sentencing Act (“FSA”) as well as Amendment 750 to the
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Sentencing Guidelines. Pursuant to a written plea agreement, Burns pleaded guilty
to possession with intent to distribute five grams or more of cocaine base, in
violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(B)(iii). He was found responsible for
24.18 grams of crack cocaine. Due to his criminal history, the presentence
investigation report (“PSI”) deemed Burns a career offender under U.S.S.G. §
4B1.1(a) and calculated a guideline range of 188 to 235 months’ imprisonment. At
sentencing, the district court concluded that the PSI correctly classified Burns as a
career offender and sentenced him to 235 months in prison. On appeal, Burns
argues that the district court erred in denying his § 3582(c)(2) motion because the
district court calculated his base offense level under U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1 before
considering his status as a career offender, signifying that his sentence was “based
on” the crack cocaine Guidelines. After thorough review, we affirm.
We review de novo a district court’s legal conclusions about the Sentencing
Guidelines and the scope of its authority under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2). United
States v. Liberse, 688 F.3d 1198, 1200 n.1 (11th Cir. 2012).
A district court may modify a term of imprisonment that was based on a
sentencing range that has subsequently been lowered by the Sentencing
Commission. 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2). A reduction, however, must be “consistent
with applicable policy statements issued by the Sentencing Commission.” Id. The
applicable policy statement provides that “[a] reduction in the defendant’s term of
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imprisonment . . . is not authorized under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) if . . . [the]
amendment . . . does not have the effect of lowering the defendant’s applicable
guideline range.” U.S.S.G. § 1B1.10(a)(2)(B). The commentary to the Guidelines
defines “applicable guideline range” as “the guideline range that corresponds to the
offense level and criminal history category.” Id. § 1B1.10, comment. (n.1(A)).
The commentary further provides that a § 3582(c)(2) sentence reduction is not
authorized and not consistent with § 1B1.10(a)(2)(B) where “the amendment does
not have the effect of lowering the defendant’s applicable guideline range because
of the operation of another guideline or statutory provision[.]” Id.
Amendment 750 to the Sentencing Guidelines amended the drug quantity
table in § 2D1.1(c) to reduce offense levels in crack cocaine cases. See U.S.S.G.
App. C, Amend. 750. It was made retroactive by Amendment 759, effective
November 1, 2011. See id., Amend. 759.
In United States v. Moore, 541 F.3d 1323 (11th Cir. 2008), we addressed
whether Amendment 706, effective November 1, 2007, and which similarly
reduced the base offense levels for crack cocaine offenses, authorized reductions
under § 3582(c)(2) for defendants who had been convicted of crack cocaine
offenses, but had been sentenced under the career offender guidelines. Id. at 1325.
We explained that § 3582(c)(2) only authorizes reductions to sentences that were
“based on” sentencing ranges that have been subsequently lowered. Id. at 1327.
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Since Amendment 706 did not lower the career offender offense levels, we
concluded that it did not lower the sentencing range upon which a career offender’s
sentence had been based. Id. We also explained that the commentary to § 1B1.10
“[made] clear” that a § 3582(c)(2) reduction was not authorized where an
amendment lowered a defendant’s base offense level for the offense of conviction
but not the career offender sentencing range under which the defendant was
sentenced. Id. at 1327-28; see also U.S.S.G. § 1B1.10, comment. (n.1(A)).
In Freeman v. United States, 564 U.S. ___, 131 S.Ct. 2685 (2011), the
Supreme Court held, in a plurality opinion, that a defendant sentenced under a plea
agreement recommending a specific sentence or sentencing range pursuant to
Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(c)(1)(C) could, in certain circumstances, still qualify for a
reduced sentence under § 3582(c)(2) if the sentence or sentencing range in the plea
agreement was “based on” the amended guideline range. See Freeman, 131 S.Ct.
at 2690. However, we have made clear that Freeman did not overrule Moore, and
that it is inapplicable to a defendant sentenced as a career offender. See United
States v. Lawson, 686 F.3d 1317, 1320-21 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 133 S.Ct. 568(2012); see also U.S.S.G. § 1B1.10, comment. (n.1(A)). In Lawson, we explained
that Freeman did not address the situation in which defendants were assigned a
base offense level under one guideline section, but were ultimately assigned a total
offense level and guideline range under § 4B1.1. 686 F.3d at 1321. Therefore, a
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defendant who was convicted of a crack cocaine offense but sentenced as a career
offender was still not eligible for a § 3582(c)(2) reduction because his guideline
range was not lowered by Amendment 750. See id.
We recently held that the FSA may not be used to reduce a sentence
pursuant to a § 3582 motion because it was a congressional statutory change and
not a guidelines amendment issued by the Sentencing Commission. See United
States v. Berry, 701 F.3d 374, 377 (11th Cir. 2012). Further, interpreting the
general savings clause, 1 U.S.C. § 109, we also said that the FSA has not been
made retroactively applicable to sentences imposed before its 2010 enactment. Id.;
see also Dorsey v. United States, 567 U.S. ___, 132 S.Ct. 2321, 2326 (2012)
(holding that the FSA’s reduced statutory mandatory minimums apply to
defendants who committed crack cocaine offenses before August 3, 2010, but were
sentenced after the date the FSA went into effect).
In United States v. Hippolyte, we also recently held that the district court
properly denied the defendant’s § 3582(c)(2) motion where the defendant was
subject to a mandatory minimum sentence for a pre-FSA offense involving cocaine
base. 712 F.3d 535, 540-42 (11th Cir. 2013), petition for cert. filed, (U.S. June 12,
2013) (No. 12-10828). Noting that the FSA did not apply retroactively, we
explained that the defendant’s guideline range was the statutory minimum at the
time of his sentencing, and thus Amendment 750 did not lower his guideline range.
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Id. at 541-42. Additionally, we rejected the defendant’s argument that Berry was
distinguishable because that case involved a career offender as opposed to a
statutory mandatory minimum sentence. Id. at 542. We reasoned that such
distinctions “lack[ed] substance” because career offender designations “‘act[] like
statutory mandatory minimums.’” Id. (quoting United States v. Mills, 613 F.3d
1070, 1078 (11th Cir. 2010)).
Here, the district court properly denied Burns’s motion for a sentence
reduction. Burns’s argument that Freeman has undermined Moore is foreclosed by
our decision in Lawson, and his attempts to distinguish Lawson are unavailing.
Specifically, Burns does not address our explanation in Lawson that Freeman was
not directly on point -- indeed, neither the plurality opinion in Freeman nor Justice
Sotomayor’s concurrence addressed the circumstances of a defendant, like Burns,
who was assigned a base offense level under one guideline section but was
ultimately assigned a total offense level and guideline range based on the career
offender provision. See Lawson, 686 F.3d at 1320-21.
Similarly, Burns’s argument that the FSA authorizes the district court to
reduce his sentence is foreclosed by our decision in Berry, where we explained that
the FSA is not an amendment to the Guidelines by the Sentencing Commission,
and thus, it cannot serve as a basis for a § 3582(c)(2) sentence reduction in Burns’s
case. See 701 F.3d at 377. Accordingly, we affirm.
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AFFIRMED.
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