United States v. Zachary Palmer

278 F. App'x 702
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedMay 23, 2008
Docket08-1177
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 278 F. App'x 702 (United States v. Zachary Palmer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth 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. Zachary Palmer, 278 F. App'x 702 (8th Cir. 2008).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

After appellant Zachary Palmer violated conditions of his supervised release, the district court 1 sentenced him to 36 months of imprisonment, a sentence above the advisory Guidelines range of 18-24 months. Palmer challenges his sentence, arguing that his sentence is unreasonable and that the district court abused its discretion by considering the presentence investigation *703 report (PSR) that was prepared in 2000, when Palmer was sentenced for his underlying conviction. We affirm.

In June of 2000, Palmer was sentenced to 60 months of imprisonment and a four-year term of supervised release for distributing and aiding and abetting the distribution of crack cocaine. Palmer started serving his supervised-release term on June 25, 2004. On August 31, 2006, Palmer was arrested for domestic assault and driving without a driver’s license. But instead of revoking Palmer’s supervised release, the district court modified the conditions of his supervised release, requiring him to reside in a halfway house for 180 days and to submit to home detention with electronic monitoring for up to 30 days. Palmer was subsequently convicted of both offenses in Iowa state court.

In December of 2007, police officers executed a search warrant at Palmer’s residence. During the search, the officers found 65.1 grams of crack cocaine, 12 grams of powder cocaine, 217.5 grams of marijuana, a digital scale, drug paraphernalia, and other evidence indicating that powder cocaine was being cooked into crack inside the residence. After completing the search, the officers interviewed Palmer, who admitted that the drugs were his. Palmer told the officers that he sold marijuana and crack, and that he had obtained powder cocaine three weeks previously and cooked some of it into crack for resale the night prior to the search. Palmer also admitted using marijuana and crack during the three weeks preceding the search.

The Government petitioned to revoke Palmer’s supervised release. After a hearing, the district court granted the Government’s petition, finding that Palmer violated the conditions of his supervised release by: possessing controlled substances with the intent to distribute; violating federal, state, and local law; and by unlawfully using controlled substances. See 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d) (establishing mandatory conditions of supervised release); 18 U.S.C. § 3583(g)(1) (requiring revocation of supervised release for illegal possession of a controlled substance, in violation of the condition required under subsection (d)). Based on Palmer’s “Grade A” supervised-release violation— possession of crack and marijuana with the intent to distribute — and a criminal history category of III at the time of sentencing in 2000, the district court calculated the advisory Guidelines range to be 18-24 months. See USSG § 7Bl.l(a)(l) (defining a “Grade A Violation [ ]” of supervised release); USSG § 7B1.4(a) (establishing the range of imprisonment applicable upon revocation based on the grade of the supervised-release violation and the defendant’s criminal history category at the time of sentencing for the underlying offense). But noting its authority under 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e)(3) to sentence Palmer to 36 months, and relying, in pari, on Palmer’s history and characteristics as reported in the 2000 PSR, the district court sentenced Palmer to 36 months of imprisonment with no subsequent term of supervised release.

On appeal, we review sentences for significant procedural error and substantive reasonableness. Gall v. United States, - U.S. -, 128 S.Ct. 586, 597, 169 L.Ed.2d 445 (2007). In this Circuit, the standard for reviewing the district court’s revocation sentence is the same reasonableness standard that we apply to review initial sentencing decisions post-Booker. 2 United States v. Cotton, 399 F.3d 913, 916 (8th Cir.2005). But see, e.g., United States v. Kizeart, 505 F.3d 672, 673-74 (7th Cir. *704 2007) (rejecting the position that the “plainly unreasonable” standard of 18 U.S.C. § 3742(e)(4) is the same as the reasonableness standard prescribed by Booker). In accordance with Gall, we review the substantive reasonableness of the district court’s revocation sentence “under a deferential abuse-of-discretion standard.” 128 S.Ct. at 591. The district court abuses its discretion if it “fails to consider a relevant factor that should have received significant weight; gives significant weight to an improper or irrelevant factor; or considers only the appropriate factors but in weighing those factors commits a clear error of judgment.” United States v. Mousseau, 517 F.3d 1044, 1048 (8th Cir.2008) (internal marks omitted).

We construe Palmer’s argument that the district court improperly considered the 2000 PSR when it sentenced him as a challenge to the procedural soundness of the district court’s sentencing decision. We find no plain, procedural error in the district court’s consideration of, and reliance on, the 2000 PSR, an issue not raised before the district court. See United States v. Brandon, 521 F.3d 1019, 1027 (8th Cir.2008) (reviewing unobjected-to sentencing procedures for plain error). Palmer cites no legal authority for the proposition that, when sentencing a defendant for violating the terms of his supervised release, the district court abuses its discretion by considering the PSR prepared for that defendant’s initial sentencing proceeding. On the contrary, the scope of the district court’s sentencing inquiry is broad and largely unlimited; 18 U.S.C. § 3661, for example, states that “[n]o limitation shall be placed on the information concerning the background, character, and conduct of a person convicted of an offense which a court of the United States may receive and consider for the purpose of imposing an appropriate sentence.” See also United States v. Atkins, 250 F.3d 1203, 1212 (8th Cir.2001) (“A district court has wide discretion at sentencing as to the kind of information considered or its source.”). Moreover, the district court is required to consider the sentencing factors set forth by 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), which include “the history and characteristics of the defendant.” § 3553(a)(1). Typically, the PSR is the primary vehicle that the district court uses to evaluate the defendant’s history and characteristics, as well as other factors that the district court must consider under § 3553(a). See

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Deangelo Grant
455 F. App'x 716 (Eighth Circuit, 2012)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
278 F. App'x 702, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-zachary-palmer-ca8-2008.