United States v. James Strickland

597 F. App'x 854
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 16, 2015
Docket14-5759
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 597 F. App'x 854 (United States v. James Strickland) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. James Strickland, 597 F. App'x 854 (6th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

OPINION

KAREN NELSON MOORE, Circuit Judge.

James Strickland was sentenced to ten years of federal supervised release for knowingly failing to register as a sex offender in Tennessee in 2010. In 2013, Strickland was arrested for violating two conditions of his supervised release. The district court sentenced him to twelve months of imprisonment for these violations. Strickland now appeals on the grounds that his sentence is substantively unreasonable. For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we AFFIRM the sentence of the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

In 1996, the State of New Jersey convicted Strickland of Endangering the Welfare of a Child for engaging in consensual sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old girl. R. 90 (Presentence Investigation Report ¶ 3) (Page ID # 150). He received a sentence of two years of probation and community supervision for life. Id. Most relevant to the current case, Strickland pleaded guilty to knowingly failing to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”) in Tennessee on or about November 5, 2010. R. 1 (Indictment) (Page ID # 1); R. 19 (Plea Pet.) (Page ID # 21-25). The district court sentenced him to twenty-seven months of imprisonment and ten years of supervised release. R. 38 (Judgment at 2-3) (Page ID # 103-04). Strickland began serving his federal supervised release on January 17, 2013. R. 50 (Superseding Pet. for Summons at 2) (Page ID # 135).

On September 26, 2013, New Jersey parole officials contacted federal parole officials to report that they had been unable to locate or contact Strickland since September 9, 2013, and that they had therefore issued a warrant for Strickland’s arrest. Id. Federal officials conducted a home visit and confirmed that Strickland had moved out of his boarding house room in New Jersey. Id.

On October 19, 2013, New Jersey law enforcement officials arrested Strickland. Id. On January 6, 2014, Strickland pleaded guilty in state court to Violation of Condition on Special Sentence, a felony in New Jersey, and received a sentence of nine months of imprisonment and community supervision for life. Id. On May 12, 2014, Strickland completed his state-court sentence. Id. at 3 (Page ID # 136).

On June 23, 2014, the district court held a hearing on the petition alleging that Strickland violated two conditions of his federal supervised release: (1) the condition that he notify his probation officer at least ten days before changing his residence or employment, and obtain pre-ap-proval of his new residence or employment; and (2) the condition that he not *856 commit another federal, state, or local crime. R. 59 (Hr’g Tr. at 3) (Page ID # 173). Strickland admitted both violations. Id. at 4 (Page ID # 174). Thus, the only issue before the district court was the appropriate sentence. The sentencing guidelines advisory range for these violations was calculated to be twelve to eighteen months of imprisonment with supervised release of five years to life. Id. at 3 (Page ID # 173). The district court sentenced Strickland to twelve months of imprisonment and terminated his federal supervised release. Id. at 25 (Page ID # 195).

On appeal, Strickland argues that his sentence is substantively unreasonable. Appellant Br. at 12.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Standard of Review

We “review supervised release revocation sentences in the same way that we review all other sentences — under a deferential abuse of discretion standard for reasonableness.” United States v. Bolds, 511 F.3d 568, 575 (6th Cir.2007) (internal quotation marks omitted). Contrary to the government’s position, plain error review is not appropriate in this case even though Strickland made no objections after the district court posed the Bostic question. “[Defendants do not need to raise the claim of substantive unreasonableness before the district court to preserve the claim for appeal.” United States v. Penson, 526 F.3d 331, 337 (6th Cir.2008). Moreover, Strickland raised both of the arguments he makes on appeal before the district court pronounced its sentence. “[Sjubstantive and procedural claims made by counsel prior to sentencing are reviewed for reasonableness, regardless of how counsel subsequently answers the Bostic question.” United States v. Simmons, 587 F.3d 348, 354 (6th Cir.2009). We therefore review Strickland’s substantive unreasonableness claim for abuse of discretion.

B. Substantive Reasonableness of Strickland’s Sentence

In cases in which the defendant challenges the substantive reasonableness of his sentence, “we must consider the sentence imposed in light of the totality of the circumstances, including the extent of any variance from the Guidelines range.” United States v. Johnson, 640 F.3d 195, 202 (6th Cir.2011) (internal quotation marks omitted). For within-guidelines sentences like the sentence in this case, “we may apply a rebuttable presumption of substantive reasonableness.” Bolds, 511 F.3d at 581. “The fact that [we] might reasonably have concluded that a different sentence was appropriate is insufficient to justify reversal of the district court.” Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51, 128 S.Ct. 586, 169 L.Ed.2d 445 (2007). “A sentence may be considered substantively unreasonable when the district court selects a sentence arbitrarily, bases the sentence on impermissible factors, fails to consider relevant sentencing factors, or gives an unreasonable amount of weight to any pertinent factor.” United States v. Conatser, 514 F.3d 508, 520 (6th Cir.2008).

Strickland argues that the district court “placed excessive weight” on the only factor favoring a harsher sentence — that Strickland had violated the conditions of supervised release before — while it did not consider two factors favoring a more lenient sentence. Appellant Br. at 13 (internal quotation marks omitted). First, Strickland argues that “he was needlessly under the supervision of two governments,” and only because of that redundant supervision did his one wrongful act — absconding—trigger a guidelines range of twelve to eighteen months instead *857 of six to twelve months, the alleged guidelines range if he had been under only federal supervision. Id. at 15. Strickland claims that the question the district court should have asked is “Does Strickland even deserve a sentence as high as 6-12 months since he has already served 9 months for the exact same conduct?” Id.

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Bluebook (online)
597 F. App'x 854, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-james-strickland-ca6-2015.