Filed: Jan. 10, 2017
Latest Update: Mar. 03, 2020
Summary: 15-3417 United States v. Diaz UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT SUMMARY ORDER RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”)
Summary: 15-3417 United States v. Diaz UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT SUMMARY ORDER RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”)...
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15-3417
United States v. Diaz
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT
SUMMARY ORDER
RULINGS BY SUMMARY ORDER DO NOT HAVE PRECEDENTIAL EFFECT. CITATION TO A SUMMARY ORDER FILED
ON OR AFTER JANUARY 1, 2007, IS PERMITTED AND IS GOVERNED BY FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE
PROCEDURE 32.1 AND THIS COURT’S LOCAL RULE 32.1.1. WHEN CITING A SUMMARY ORDER IN A
DOCUMENT FILED WITH THIS COURT, A PARTY MUST CITE EITHER THE FEDERAL APPENDIX OR AN
ELECTRONIC DATABASE (WITH THE NOTATION “SUMMARY ORDER”). A PARTY CITING A SUMMARY ORDER MUST
SERVE A COPY OF IT ON ANY PARTY NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL.
1 At a stated term of the United States Court of Appeals
2 for the Second Circuit, held at the Thurgood Marshall United
3 States Courthouse, 40 Foley Square, in the City of New York,
4 on the 10th day of January, two thousand seventeen.
5
6 PRESENT: DENNIS JACOBS,
7 ROBERT D. SACK,
8 SUSAN L. CARNEY,
9 Circuit Judges,
10
11 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -X
12 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
13 Appellee,
14
15 -v.- 15-3417
16
17 FREDDIE DIAZ,
18 Defendant-Appellant,
19
20 FRANCISCO GOMEZ,
21 Defendant.
22
23 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -X
24
25
26 FOR APPELLANT: MARSHA R. TAUBENHAUS, New York,
27 New York.
28
1
1 FOR APPELLEE: NEGAR TEKEEI and MARGARET
2 GARNETT, for Preet Bharara,
3 United States Attorney for the
4 Southern District of New York.
5
6 Appeal from a judgment of the United States District
7 Court for the Southern District of New York (Buchwald, J.).
8 UPON DUE CONSIDERATION, IT IS HEREBY ORDERED, ADJUDGED
9 AND DECREED that the judgment of the district court be
10 AFFIRMED.
11 Freddie Diaz appeals from the judgment of the United
12 States District Court for the Southern District of New York
13 (Buchwald, J.) imposing a prison sentence of 72 months,
14 following a plea. We assume the parties’ familiarity with
15 the underlying facts, the procedural history, and the issues
16 presented for review. We affirm because the substantially
17 below Guidelines sentence was procedurally and substantively
18 reasonable.
19 Diaz pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to
20 distribute at least 500 grams of cocaine. Because he was a
21 career offender, his Sentencing Guidelines range was 188 to
22 235 months imprisonment and he faced a mandatory minimum of
23 60 months. The district court sentenced him below
24 Guidelines to 72 months.
25 We review sentences under an abuse of discretion
26 standard for both procedural error and substantive
2
1 unreasonableness. United States v. Bennett,
839 F.3d 153,
2 159 (2d Cir. 2016). Diaz argues that the district court
3 procedurally erred by failing to consider three factors:
4 1) the conditions of his pretrial confinement; 2) his
5 psychological history; and 3) evidence that his prior crimes
6 involved poor impulse control. He also argues that his
7 sentence was substantively unreasonable when compared to his
8 codefendant’s sentence.
9 Diaz’s procedural challenges fail. Diaz’s sentencing
10 submission and the Presentence Report both reviewed his
11 conditions of confinement and psychological history, and the
12 district court repeatedly addressed the Presentence Report
13 at sentencing. As we have explained, “[a] sentencing court
14 does not have to parse every sentencing factor . . . or
15 address each of the defendant’s arguments regarding various
16 factors, for a sentence to be procedurally reasonable.”
17 United States v. Pattee,
820 F.3d 496, 512 (2d Cir. 2016).
18 Moreover, at sentencing, the district court explicitly
19 considered both his psychological history and his youth at
20 the time he committed the crimes. The below-Guidelines
21 sentence strongly suggests that these mitigating factors
22 were taken into account. There was no abuse of discretion.
23 Diaz’s substantive challenge is that his sentence of 72
24 months was disproportionate to his codefendant’s sentence
3
1 (48 months). We will vacate sentences as substantively
2 unreasonable only if they are “so shockingly high,
3 shockingly low, or otherwise unsupportable as a matter of
4 law that allowing them to stand would damage the
5 administration of justice.” United States v. Aldeen, 792
6 F.3d 247, 255 (2d Cir. 2015) (internal quotation marks
7 omitted). The disparity between the sentences does not
8 shock the conscience (especially given Diaz’s codefendant’s
9 “safety valve” eligibility under Sentencing Guidelines
10 §§ 2D1.1(b)(17) and 5C1.2), and it was therefore
11 substantively reasonable.
Id.
12 For the foregoing reasons, and finding no merit in
13 Diaz’s other arguments, we hereby AFFIRM the judgment of the
14 district court.
15
16
17 FOR THE COURT:
18 CATHERINE O’HAGAN WOLFE, CLERK
19
4