United States v. Watters, No. 18-2237 (8th Cir. 2020)
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The Eighth Circuit affirmed defendant's sentence imposed after he pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography. The district court imposed a sentence at the bottom of the advisory guidelines range, 262 months, but ordered the sentence to run consecutive to the remaining portion of an earlier-imposed, 60-month, revocation-of-supervised-release sentence under 18 U.S.C. 3583(k). After the Supreme Court held that section 3583(k) was unconstitutional in United States v. Haymond, 139 S. Ct. 2369 (2019), the court ordered supplemental briefing.
The court held that even if Haymond abrogated the court's double jeopardy precedent, any error in this case was not plain. The court also held that defendant's sentence was not substantively unreasonable where the district court considered the 18 U.S.C. 3553(a) factors and sufficiently explained its reasons for imposing a within-guidelines sentence.
Court Description: Melloy, Author, with Shepherd and Grasz, Circuit Judges] Criminal Case - Sentence. While serving lifetime term of supervised release for receiving child pornography, the district court found Watters had received, possesses and distributed child pornography; he was sentenced to mandatory 60-month revocation sentence under section 3583(k). He was also charged with new offenses; he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 262 months imprisonment to run consecutive to this revocation sentence. On appeal, Watters argues his sentence violated Double Jeopardy and his sentence is unreasonable. Under plain error review, even after the Supreme Court concluded section 3582(k) was unconstitutional in violation of the Sixth Amendment in United States v. Haymond, 139 S. Ct. 2369 (2019) and even if Haymond abrogated double jeopardy precedent, the error was not plain here. The sentence was also not substantively unreasonable.
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