United States v. Roderick D. WIlliams

246 F. App'x 626
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedAugust 30, 2007
Docket05-15184
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 246 F. App'x 626 (United States v. Roderick D. WIlliams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh 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. Roderick D. WIlliams, 246 F. App'x 626 (11th Cir. 2007).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Following a jury trial, Roderick D. Williams was convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 kilograms or more but less than 100 kilograms of marijuana and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more but less than 500 grams of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846. The district court sentenced Williams to 97 months’ imprisonment. Williams challenges his convictions on the grounds that the district court constructively amended the indictment, the district court erred in denying his motion to dismiss for selective prosecution, and the district court abused its discretion in admitting evidence of a law enforcement seizure of guns and drugs. He also con *629 tests his sentence, arguing that the district court’s sentencing procedure violated the Fifth and Sixth Amendments and his sentence was unreasonable. Williams also raises two ineffective assistance of counsel claims. The government seeks to enforce Williams’s post-trial appeal waiver. For the reasons set forth more fully below, we affirm.

I. Appeal waiver

In a post-trial cooperation agreement with the government, Williams waived the right to appeal his conviction and sentence, with the following exceptions: (1) any punishment imposed in excess of the statutory maximum; (2) any upward departure from the Guideline range; and (3) a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. We review de novo the question of whether a “defendant effectively—that is knowingly and voluntarily—waived his right to appeal his sentence...” United States v. Benitez-Zapata, 131 F.3d 1444, 1446 (11th Cir.1997) (citation and quotation marks omitted). A “[w]aiver will be enforced if the government demonstrates either: (1) the district court specifically questioned the defendant about the waiver during the plea colloquy, or (2) the record clearly shows that the defendant otherwise understood the full significance of the waiver.” Id. (emphasis in original).

We conclude that the government has failed to make such a showing. During the sentencing hearing, the district court did not discuss the specific terms of Williams’s appeal waiver, at one point acknowledging that it did not recall the specific content of the waiver. The district court’s comments that Williams “waived certain of [his] rights,” “waive[d] some if not all of [his] rights to appeal the sentence itself,” and “waived[d] certain of [his] appellate rights of [his] sentence, the sentence itself, and maybe the conviction” were not specific questioning regarding the appeal waiver. Nor does the record clearly show that Williams otherwise understood the full significance of the waiver. Williams’s acknowledgment in the written agreement regarding his understanding of and voluntary entry into the agreement alone is insufficient to show that the waiver was knowing and voluntary. See United States v. Bushert, 997 F.2d 1343, 1352 (11th Cir.1993). At the sentencing hearing, Williams indicated that he did not understand what the district court said about his right to appeal, and the district court’s subsequent explanation of the appeal waiver did not discuss the specific limitations on Williams’s right to appeal. 1 Given Williams’s expressions of confusion and the failure of the district court to ensure that Williams understood the extent to which he was giving up his right to *630 appeal, we hold that the government has failed to establish that Williams’s waiver was knowing and voluntary.

II. Selective prosecution

Williams’s race-based selective prosecution challenge is based upon the government’s treatment of Shane Godwin, who Williams contends was indicted as a result of his selective prosecution claim. Williams contends that Godwin was similarly situated because he had equal or greater involvement in the conspiracy, but was indicted for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and not for conspiracy.

In reviewing the denial of a motion to dismiss for selective prosecution, we review the district court’s factual findings for clear error and its legal conclusions de novo. United States v. Smith, 231 F.3d 800, 806 (11th Cir.2000). Where selective prosecution is based on race, the defendant must establish, by clear and convincing evidence, that similarly situated individuals of a different race were not prosecuted for the type of conduct with which the defendant has been charged and that the selective prosecution was motivated by a discriminatory purpose. Id. at 808-09; United States v. Burton, 871 F.2d 1566, 1574 n. 3 (11th Cir.1989).

[A] “similarly situated” person for selective prosecution purposes [is] one who engaged in the same type of conduct, which means that the comparator committed the same basic crime in substantially the same manner as the defendant—so that any prosecution of that individual would have the same deterrence value and would be related in the same way to the Government’s enforcement priorities and enforcement plan— and against whom the evidence was as strong or stronger than that against the defendant.

Smith, 231 F.3d at 810.

[A] defendant fails to satisfy the “similarly situated” prong of the selective prosecution defense when those not prosecuted cooperated with the government, or were lower in the organizational structure of the conspiracy than those prosecuted, and when the defendant offers nothing but bare general allegations that the selectivity was motivated by racial considerations.

United States v. Silien, 825 F.2d 320, 322 (11th Cir.1987).

Godwin was not prosecuted for the type of conduct—methamphetamine conspiracy—for which Williams was charged. In support of his motion to dismiss, Williams relied upon a bare allegation that Godwin was involved in the conspiracy, offering no evidence in support of his contention. The government, however, responded with evidence that Williams’s role in the conspiracy, as a drug supplier, was higher in the organization than Godwin. The government’s evidence is consistent with evidence in the record on appeal. Based on evidence that Williams supplied multiple people with marijuana and methamphetamine, while Godwin was an occasional purchaser of methamphetamine from a middle-man between himself and Williams, we hold that the district court did not err in finding that Godwin was not similarly situated. See Smith, 231 F.3d at 812 (“The government can legitimately place a higher priority on prosecuting someone who commits an offense three, six or seven times, than someone who commits an offense once or twice, especially when the offense is a non-violent one.

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Bluebook (online)
246 F. App'x 626, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-roderick-d-williams-ca11-2007.