United States v. Nicholson

272 F. App'x 732
Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit·Decided April 9, 2008·No. 07-3334·Unpublished

Opinions

ORDER AND JUDGMENT *

PER CURIAM.

On June 4, 2007, defendant Eugene W. Nicholson pleaded guilty to a two-count [733] Information charging him with one count of possession with intent to distribute five grams or more of cocaine base and one count of forfeiture of $2,017.54 in United States currency. The written plea agreement between Nicholson and the United States provides that Nicholson “knowingly and voluntarily waives any right to appeal or collaterally attack any matter in connection with this prosecution, conviction and sentence.” Plea Agrmt. at 5, 119. More specifically, he “knowingly waives any right to appeal a sentence imposed which is within the guideline range determined appropriate by- the court.... In other words, [he] waives the right to appeal the sentence imposed in this case except to the extent, if any, the court departs upward from the applicable sentencing guideline range determined by the court.” Id. at 5-6,119.

The district court imposed a sentence at the bottom of the advisory guideline range. Despite the waiver of appellate rights in the plea agreement, Nicholson then filed a notice of appeal. His docketing statement reflects that he desires to appeal his sentence because he believes it is too harsh. Seeking to enforce the waiver of appellate rights contained in the plea agreement, the United States has moved to dismiss this appeal pursuant to United States v. Hahn, 359 F.3d 1315 (10th Cir.2004) (en banc) (per curiam).

In determining whether to dismiss an appeal based on a waiver of appellate rights, we consider “(1) whether the disputed appeal falls within the scope of the waiver of appellate rights; (2) whether the defendant knowingly and voluntarily waived his appellate rights; and (3) whether enforcing the waiver would result in a miscarriage of justice.” Id. at 1325.

To prove that enforcement of an appellate waiver would result in a miscarriage of justice, a defendant must establish at least one of four circumstances: (1) reliance by the court on an impermissible factor such as race in the imposition of the sentence; (2) ineffective assistance of counsel in connection with the negotiation of the waiver; (3) the sentence exceeds the statutory maximum; or (4) the waiver is otherwise-unlawful and seriously affects the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings.

United States v. Porter, 405 F.3d 1136, 1143 (10th Cir.2005).

In his response to the government’s motion, Nicholson does not dispute that his appeal falls within the scope of the appeal waiver, but he does contend both that he did not knowingly and voluntarily waive his right to appeal and that enforcing the waiver would result in a miscarriage of justice. First, he argues that he did not knowingly and voluntarily waive his right to appeal because the plea agreement failed to include certain information about the calculation of his sentence that was critical to a meeting of the minds.

Nicholson admitted in the plea agreement to possessing with intent to distribute a total of 14.24 grams of cocaine base and to possessing $2,017.54, which was derived from or was intended to be used to facilitate the commission of his possession with intent to distribute the drugs. To calculate the base offense level for Count 1, the presentence report converted the $2,017.54 of currency into a cocaine base [734] equivalent and then added that to the 14.24 grams of cocaine base to arrive at a total amount of cocaine base.1

Nicholson argues that neither the plea agreement nor the court’s plea colloquy informed him of the possibility that the currency would be converted into drugs and he would be sentenced on that hypothetical quantity of drugs rather than the quantity to which he admitted in the plea agreement. He contends there was no meeting of the minds about what quantity of drugs he was pleading guilty to nor about how the currency would be converted into a drug equivalency, so his appeal waiver was neither knowing nor voluntary.

Nicholson’s arguments are neither factually nor legally supportable. First, there is no question about the amount of drugs to which he pleaded guilty. The plea agreement states that on August 4, 2006 police officers found him in possession of approximately 6.88 grams of cocaine base and on December 23, 2006, they found him in possession of approximately 7.36 grams of cocaine base and 5.77 grams of marijuana. Plea Agrmt. at 2, 112. Nicholson pleaded guilty to possessing with the intent to distribute the cocaine base found in his possession on August 4 and December 23, id., which totals 14.24 grams.

What Nicholson is essentially arguing is that when he pleaded guilty, he did not know how his sentence would be calculated, and he did not agree to the method used, so his waiver of his right to an appeal could not have been knowing and voluntary. But he did not have to know how his sentence would be calculated in order to agree to waive his right to appeal it.

The plea agreement recites the parties’ desire that the United States Sentencing Guidelines (U.S.S.G.) would apply, it acknowledges that the sentence to be imposed will be determined solely by the district court, and it acknowledges that uncharged related criminal activity as well as conduct charged in any dismissed counts may be considered as relevant conduct in calculating the sentence under the guidelines. The plea agreement also recites Nicholson’s understanding that if the court accepts his plea but imposes a sentence with which Nicholson does not agree, Nicholson cannot withdraw his plea.

At the plea colloquy the court informed Nicholson that it did not know what sentence it would impose and that it could not know what sentence it would impose until it saw the presentence report. The court also advised Nicholson that although his counsel may have discussed his views of likely sentencing with Nicholson, his counsel could not possibly know what sentence Nicholson would receive either. The court made it clear to Nicholson before it accepted his plea that Nicholson was pleading guilty without knowing how long a sentence he would receive, except that it would be somewhere between the statutory minimum of five years and the statutory maximum of forty years.

The district court questioned Nicholson thoroughly about his understanding of the [735] plea agreement, including the factual basis for the plea stated in the agreement, how his sentence would be determined, and the appeal waiver. With regard to the latter, the court explained:

Paragraph 9 sets forth your agreement that you will not appeal from your conviction and sentence, nor will you come back at a later date and ask me to reopen your case under Section 2255 or Rule 60(b). Basically the effect of Paragraph 9 is that you will not ask any court anywhere at any time for any reason to review what happens to you in this court in terms of your convictions and sentence. Do you understand that?

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United States v. Nicholson, 272 F. App'x 732 (10th Cir. 2008).

272 F. App'x 732 (United States v. Nicholson) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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