UNITED STATES v. CARPENTER (2021)

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.2021-09-07No. No. 20-10902

Summary · law.co

Holding. The court denied the government's motion for summary affirmance and its alternative motion for extension of time, granted Carpenter's motion for partial dismissal of the appeal regarding the first issue, and affirmed the district court's judgment in all other respects.

Kassie Bond Carpenter appealed her guilty plea conviction for obstruction of justice, raising two issues: whether the district court had discretion to forgo supervised release, and whether a federal statute was unconstitutional under a prior Supreme Court decision. Carpenter filed a motion to dismiss the first issue from her appeal and acknowledged that she could not demonstrate plain error on the second issue because no controlling authority supported her constitutional argument. The government sought summary affirmance based on Carpenter's concession that she could not show plain error. The court determined that summary affirmance was inappropriate because the constitutional issue was not foreclosed by existing circuit precedent, even though Carpenter had failed to establish plain error.

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Key issues

Whether discretion exists to forgo imposing supervised release as a condition of sentence
Whether 18 U.S.C. § 3147 is unconstitutional under Alleyne v. United States
When summary affirmance is appropriate in appellate review

Procedural posture

A defendant appealing a guilty plea conviction for obstruction of justice filed a partial motion to dismiss her appeal and conceded inability to demonstrate plain error on her remaining constitutional challenge.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion · public domain

Kassie Bond Carpenter appeals her guilty plea conviction and sentence for obstruction of justice. In her appellate brief, she initially argued that (1) the district court erred in failing to recognize that it had the discretion to forgo imposing a term of supervised release; and (2) 18 U.S.C. § 3147 is unconstitutional in view of Alleyne v. United States, 570 U.S. 99, 133 S.Ct. 2151, 186 L.Ed.2d 314 (2013). She subsequently filed a motion for partial dismissal of her appeal as to the first issue. She acknowledges that the plain error standard of review is applicable to her second issue and that she cannot show clear or obvious error because there is no controlling authority supporting her argument that § 3147 is unconstitutional under Alleyne.

The Government has filed a motion for summary affirmance. Because Carpenter has conceded that she cannot show plain error, the Government argues that summary affirmance is appropriate.

This courts summary affirmance procedure is generally reserved for cases in which the parties concede that the issues are foreclosed by circuit precedent, and the Government has identified no controlling authority foreclosing Carpenters appeal. See United States v. Houston, 625 F.3d 871, 873 n.2 (5th Cir. 2010) (noting the denial of summary affirmance where an issue was not foreclosed). However, because Carpenter concedes that there is no controlling authority supporting her argument that § 3147 is unconstitutional under Alleyne and that she cannot demonstrate a clear or obvious error, she has not shown plain error. See Puckett v. United States, 556 U.S. 129, 135, 129 S.Ct. 1423, 173 L.Ed.2d 266 (2009); see also United States v. Fields, 777 F.3d 799, 802 (5th Cir. 2015). The Governments motion for summary affirmance and its alternative motion for an extension of time to file a brief are DENIED. Carpenters motion for partial dismissal of the appeal is GRANTED. In all other respects, the district courts judgment is AFFIRMED.

FOOTNOTES

FOOTNOTE

Per Curiam:*

FN* Pursuant to 5th Circuit Rule 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5th Circuit Rule 47.5.4.