[00:00:00] Speaker 01: 23-2076, United States versus Gutierrez. [00:00:08] Speaker 03: Good morning. [00:00:09] Speaker 03: My name is Margaret Cates. [00:00:11] Speaker 03: I'm the federal defender for the District of New Mexico, and I'm representing Mr. Gutierrez. [00:00:16] Speaker 03: I'd like to talk about the fourth Barker factor that's prejudice to the defendant. [00:00:23] Speaker 03: And Barker tells us in order to determine whether or not there has been prejudice to the defendant, we have to look at the goals [00:00:31] Speaker 03: of the constitutional speedy trial, right? [00:00:33] Speaker 03: And so those goals, there are three of them, is to prevent oppressive pretrial incarceration, to minimize anxiety and concerns to the accused, and to limit the possibility that the defense will be impacted. [00:00:47] Speaker 03: And so unfortunately, Mr. Gutierrez was subject to oppressive pretrial incarceration, had the case been timely prosecuted, [00:00:58] Speaker 02: He would have been sentenced under the provisions of 5G, the mandatory provisions of- Does pretrial incarceration implicate the Speedy Trial Act? [00:01:08] Speaker 02: Hasn't the case law said if they're going to get credit for that time served anyway, we don't include that in the Speedy Trial Analysis? [00:01:18] Speaker 03: No, I think there's more to the analysis than just whether or not you're going to get credit for it. [00:01:23] Speaker 03: It specifically talks about the oppressive [00:01:28] Speaker 03: conditions as well. [00:01:29] Speaker 03: And so in this situation, for example, after having served two years in state incarceration on the state case and programming, he got out and he got taken into federal custody. [00:01:46] Speaker 03: And then he was held in pretrial detention for a year. [00:01:50] Speaker 03: And he was in a detention center that at that time literally had no programming. [00:01:56] Speaker 03: and had he been prosecuted timely, the court would have had to have executed the operation of the guidelines by going through 5G 1.3, and the court would have had to have run the remainder of the sentence concurrently. [00:02:15] Speaker 03: And so he would not have ended up having to be in pretrial incarceration at all. [00:02:22] Speaker 02: And then there's also a question in the case law whether sentencing [00:02:27] Speaker 02: sentencing issues affect your speedy trial, right? [00:02:33] Speaker 03: So this court in Jumeif acknowledged that the possibility that the defendant's sentence can be a valid component of speedy trial analysis in the appropriate case. [00:02:45] Speaker 02: Didn't it say, let me interrupt you, it said they haven't cited any cases that has treated the sentence imposed post-conviction. [00:02:54] Speaker 02: as relevant to assessing the constitutional validity of pretrial proceedings. [00:03:00] Speaker 02: And then they assumed for purposes of analysis that it did and rejected it on the merits. [00:03:06] Speaker 02: But they certainly raised a question of whether it was a valid consideration. [00:03:13] Speaker 03: The way I read it is, yes, they raised it as a consideration and acknowledged that it could be a consideration and found it in Jumeif that it was not, in fact, [00:03:24] Speaker 02: the case, that it wasn't applicable, but then in the appropriate case, the analysis could be- Let me raise one other problem I have with your pretrial incarceration argument, which is you didn't raise it until your reply brief. [00:03:42] Speaker 02: As far as- You raised it, I'm sorry, on the first time on appeal. [00:03:45] Speaker 02: You didn't raise it in the district court at all. [00:03:52] Speaker 03: I think that the sort of [00:03:54] Speaker 03: The gestalt of the argument was raised in the district court. [00:03:58] Speaker 03: I think the attorney that represented Mr. Gutierrez in the district court filed a very comprehensive motion to dismiss. [00:04:09] Speaker 03: And in there, she did talk about the speedy trial rights. [00:04:14] Speaker 03: I mean, that is what the speedy trial, those are what the speedy trial rights are. [00:04:19] Speaker 03: Those are the goals and the [00:04:22] Speaker 03: the intention of the speedy trial rights is that people are prevented from having oppressive pretrial incarceration, minimizing the anxiety and concern. [00:04:35] Speaker 03: So I think that it was raised at the district court level the issue of whether or not there was prejudice to the defendant. [00:04:46] Speaker 03: And so obviously in our appeals, we go into things in more details. [00:04:51] Speaker 03: But the issue was certainly raised. [00:04:54] Speaker 03: Moving on to the second goal of SPDY trial, and that is minimizing the anxiety and concern of the EQs. [00:05:03] Speaker 03: That certainly didn't happen here. [00:05:04] Speaker 03: Mr. Gutierrez, he had programmed. [00:05:09] Speaker 03: He was doing well, finished his two years in custody. [00:05:13] Speaker 03: He was preparing to be released, preparing to return to the community, reintegrating with his family. [00:05:20] Speaker 03: He was wanting to get back in. [00:05:22] Speaker 03: support his mother and go back to work. [00:05:25] Speaker 03: And surprise, he found out the day he was being released that he was going back to square one. [00:05:31] Speaker 03: And then add to that the fact that as COVID was raging in the jails and prisons, and so I think that's a fairly strong indication that that goal of the speedy trial rights did not happen for Mr. Gutierrez. [00:05:48] Speaker 03: And then the third one is limiting the possibility [00:05:52] Speaker 03: that the defense will be impacted. [00:05:56] Speaker 03: And the delay absolutely impaired Mr. Gutierrez's defense because it fundamentally altered the landscape of his sentencing proceedings. [00:06:08] Speaker 01: Has the Supreme Court squarely held, though, that the Barker factors would apply to post-trial sentencing proceedings? [00:06:18] Speaker 01: I couldn't find a case that [00:06:21] Speaker 01: You know, ratified that. [00:06:22] Speaker 01: And we do have our case. [00:06:24] Speaker 01: We were just discussing in the circuit. [00:06:27] Speaker 01: I don't have a Supreme Court case. [00:06:28] Speaker 01: And the Betterman versus Montana suggests that there is no constitutional right at sentencing based on trial delays. [00:06:40] Speaker 03: As I read Betterman, that addresses the issue of an interest in a right to a speedy sentencing. [00:06:46] Speaker 03: That's not what we're arguing. [00:06:48] Speaker 03: We're arguing that, so I don't think veterans really is applicable in this situation. [00:06:55] Speaker 03: We're arguing, yes, we are arguing that there are certain things that ended up happening at sentencing that are inextricably intertwined in the delay that occurred, the way that it impacted Mr. Gutierrez, which include, for example, [00:07:16] Speaker 03: had the case been prosecuted timely, the sentencing guidelines would have been calculated under 5G 1.3. [00:07:25] Speaker 03: And therefore, the district court would have had to have given credit for the 18 months he'd already served in state custody and would have had to have ordered that the remainder of the sentence be served concurrently. [00:07:37] Speaker 01: And so he lost it. [00:07:39] Speaker 01: Did he get the full credit eventually? [00:07:41] Speaker 03: I don't think he did. [00:07:42] Speaker 03: He got twice. [00:07:44] Speaker 03: That's also a little murky in the end. [00:07:46] Speaker 03: If you read the sentencing transcript, she says she's giving him credit for 24 months. [00:07:51] Speaker 03: She says she's departing upward for 24 months. [00:07:54] Speaker 03: And then she says she's giving him a sentence that's at the high end of the guidelines. [00:07:58] Speaker 03: She says she thinks 70 months is the appropriate sentence. [00:08:01] Speaker 03: But in substance, I think your question is, [00:08:05] Speaker 03: He served 24 months in state court, in state system. [00:08:10] Speaker 03: Didn't he get those 24 months? [00:08:11] Speaker 03: But I don't think it's that clear cut, because would he have gotten the exact same thing had he gotten his speedy trial rights? [00:08:22] Speaker 03: And here's why I don't think it is. [00:08:24] Speaker 01: Isn't that wholly speculative, though? [00:08:26] Speaker 03: Well, I think what happened was you can say it's speculative, [00:08:30] Speaker 03: Truthfully, it's actually not that speculative because at the time of the motion to dismiss, she already knew this. [00:08:36] Speaker 03: This wasn't a potential future sentencing argument that she had no way to know. [00:08:41] Speaker 03: The district court judge knew at the time that she had the motion to dismiss for speedy trial reasons. [00:08:48] Speaker 03: She already knew the universe we were dealing. [00:08:50] Speaker 03: She already knew that he had served out his entire state sentence and that she wouldn't be able to [00:08:58] Speaker 03: run the case concurrently and give him credit for that. [00:09:01] Speaker 03: So she did know that. [00:09:02] Speaker 03: And so I don't think it is speculative. [00:09:04] Speaker 03: She said it's speculative, but in reality, it's not speculative. [00:09:07] Speaker 03: The universe was what it was. [00:09:10] Speaker 03: The only thing that changed eventually is her maybe upward departure following a case that she relied on in a different Judge Browning in our districts. [00:09:27] Speaker 03: case was the only thing. [00:09:28] Speaker 03: I'd like to talk about that in a minute, but with respect to the prejudice in addition to the issue that she wouldn't [00:09:41] Speaker 03: had been sentencing him, she would have been sending him under 5G. [00:09:45] Speaker 03: Why I think that's important is because the way to, the operation of that guideline is to look at the guidelines initially, which were 37 to 46 months, and then she would have had to take 18 months off the guidelines, 18 months that he'd already served. [00:09:59] Speaker 03: Now it would be 19 to 28 months. [00:10:02] Speaker 03: And so if she thought the appropriate sentence was, were 70 months, she would have to justify [00:10:09] Speaker 03: that departure of more or less 50 months, which would be at least two and a half times more than the underlying sentence. [00:10:18] Speaker 03: And she didn't give any really substantial justification for that eventual departure. [00:10:27] Speaker 03: One of the things she did say was that she didn't think that the state court sentence on the aggravated assault was enough. [00:10:34] Speaker 03: which, as this court asked that exact same question in previous arguments, that was inappropriate. [00:10:44] Speaker 03: That's an inappropriate and impermissible reason for her to give that extensive a departure. [00:10:51] Speaker 03: She owes deference to the state court in the same way that you owe deference to the district court. [00:11:00] Speaker 01: But the government, I think you partially answered my question. [00:11:05] Speaker 01: The 5G 1.3 only would have affected the guideline calculation. [00:11:13] Speaker 01: It would not have handcuffed the district court from varying upward, which is what happened. [00:11:22] Speaker 01: So just because your guideline range has changed doesn't really establish prejudice unless we assume [00:11:32] Speaker 01: a number of what could have happened otherwise. [00:11:37] Speaker 03: But that's where the speculation is. [00:11:38] Speaker 03: Now you have to speculate. [00:11:40] Speaker 03: Would she have been able to substantiate such a significant upward departure? [00:11:46] Speaker 03: And if I may, I have like three minutes left. [00:11:50] Speaker 03: As far as the second Barker factor, is the reason for the delay [00:12:01] Speaker 03: I think Mr. Gutierrez wins on that. [00:12:03] Speaker 03: I know that this court in Key said that it was a neutral factor, but I think it starts as a neutral factor. [00:12:08] Speaker 03: In our particular situation, it was a simple case. [00:12:12] Speaker 03: He was detained very close to the courthouse. [00:12:15] Speaker 03: And even though the government said that the marshal said they couldn't bring writs, there was no evidence actually produced. [00:12:21] Speaker 03: Contrary to that, the defense produced evidence that, in fact, the government was bringing writs for people. [00:12:29] Speaker 03: And the most important thing is that under the CARES Act, we had video conferencing. [00:12:34] Speaker 03: We had court continued. [00:12:36] Speaker 03: I feel very proud to have been a part of putting that together, that we did all court other than a trial. [00:12:43] Speaker 02: So there was no reason that he couldn't be tried. [00:12:46] Speaker 03: Yeah, but he could get an attorney. [00:12:47] Speaker 03: He could have an arraignment. [00:12:48] Speaker 03: He could assert his speedy trial rates. [00:12:50] Speaker 03: And those are the things that he wasn't allowed to do. [00:12:55] Speaker 03: And I'd just like to briefly address the impermissible upward departure. [00:13:01] Speaker 01: Do you know why he didn't receive notice of the indictment? [00:13:04] Speaker 03: Do I know why? [00:13:05] Speaker 03: I don't know why. [00:13:07] Speaker 03: Nobody knew. [00:13:09] Speaker 03: The prison was informed, wasn't it? [00:13:12] Speaker 03: There's an indication that something was filed with the jail. [00:13:15] Speaker 03: And I don't know if it was just a detainer. [00:13:18] Speaker 03: But during the hearing, the evidence was that there was no evidence that he was ever informed of it. [00:13:24] Speaker 03: And in fact, the jail said they don't have any procedure to do it. [00:13:26] Speaker 03: And the federal government didn't do anything. [00:13:28] Speaker 03: And the government didn't inform the court so that the court could have an opportunity to set up an arraignment. [00:13:38] Speaker 03: And I just wanted to quickly address the impermissible upward departure, because I think that's really concerning. [00:13:45] Speaker 03: This court has said in Kelly that the departure for 5K 2.6 only applies in cases where a firearm could or could not be used. [00:13:57] Speaker 03: And that makes sense if you look at the actual language of 5K 2.6. [00:14:02] Speaker 03: It says if a weapon was used in the commission of the offense [00:14:07] Speaker 03: Judge Browning in his decision is saying that refers to the felon in possession. [00:14:12] Speaker 03: That literally makes no sense because every single felon in possession would have to fall under that because you would have to possess a firearm necessarily in commission of the offense, the offense being felon in possession. [00:14:27] Speaker 03: So I don't think that analysis makes sense. [00:14:30] Speaker 03: Alternatively though, it is the exact same conduct as the additional [00:14:35] Speaker 03: four-level enhancement that he received for possessing the firearm in connection with the felony. [00:14:42] Speaker 03: It's exact same assault, aggravated assault. [00:14:48] Speaker 03: And so in the end, he ends up getting punished five times for the same conduct. [00:14:53] Speaker 03: He gets prosecuted in state court for the aggravated assault. [00:14:56] Speaker 03: He gets prosecuted in federal court for felon in possession. [00:14:59] Speaker 03: He gets plus three for the prior [00:15:01] Speaker 03: aggravated assault in his criminal history. [00:15:04] Speaker 03: He gets plus four because he committed the felon in possession in connection with another felony. [00:15:10] Speaker 03: And then impermissibly, the court upwards departs with maybe looks like 24 months for the exact same conduct because saying that he possessed the firearm in connection with another felony. [00:15:26] Speaker 03: And that's just a miscarriage of justice. [00:15:29] Speaker 01: Why wouldn't your appellate waiver comply? [00:15:32] Speaker 01: What I'm sorry. [00:15:33] Speaker 01: The appellate waiver. [00:15:36] Speaker 03: Why does it doesn't apply. [00:15:37] Speaker 03: I think my time is up. [00:15:41] Speaker 03: It doesn't apply for a couple of reasons. [00:15:44] Speaker 03: Han was clear that so under Han. [00:15:49] Speaker 03: It is not, the disputed appeal does not fall within the scope of the waiver because of the unique situation in which the sentencing factor that I'm talking about, not all the sentencing factors, but specifically that upward departure, is so inextricably connected to the speedy trial issue and the cause by the speedy trial issue that it's not included. [00:16:14] Speaker 02: And also how- That argument wasn't in the motion to dismiss, right? [00:16:20] Speaker 02: that they were in it. [00:16:21] Speaker 02: The appellate waiver carved out your prior motion to dismiss based on speedy trial, right? [00:16:28] Speaker 02: Right, but the... But this argument you're making now wasn't in that motion. [00:16:34] Speaker 02: The motion that the waiver shouldn't have... The motion to dismiss in the district court for a violation of the Speedy Trial Act. [00:16:43] Speaker 03: Yes, we did argue that the appellate waiver should not apply [00:16:49] Speaker 03: And the reason it... That's not my question. [00:16:52] Speaker 02: My question is the appellate waiver carves out your motion to dismiss filed in the district court based on speedy trial. [00:17:03] Speaker 02: Yes. [00:17:03] Speaker 02: This argument that you're making now on appeal was not part of that motion to dismiss in the district court, correct? [00:17:13] Speaker 03: I'm actually not 100% sure of the answer to that question, Your Honor. [00:17:17] Speaker 03: But the final thing was that that waiver couldn't have been made knowingly and voluntarily because there was no way to imagine that the maestas case was gonna be decided because [00:17:37] Speaker 03: That case got, if Mr. Gutierrez's case had moved as expeditiously as it should have, Maestas wouldn't have existed, and that is the only thing that the court, the probation, and the U.S. [00:17:53] Speaker 03: Attorney's Office relied on for support for that substantial upward variance. [00:17:59] Speaker 03: And so the last thing in Han is it would be a miscarriage to not correct [00:18:05] Speaker 03: an incorrect guideline calculation. [00:18:08] Speaker 03: Thank you. [00:18:09] Speaker 00: Good morning, Your Honors, Council. [00:18:13] Speaker 00: May it please the Court, Tiffany Walters for the United States. [00:18:16] Speaker 00: The District Court properly weighed the Barker factors and concluded that COVID-related delays in Gutierrez's prosecution did not violate his Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial. [00:18:25] Speaker 00: I'd like to jump directly to the prejudice prong, which is, in fact, the prong that this Court has recognized, the absence of which is nearly fatal to a speedy trial claim. [00:18:36] Speaker 00: Case law in the 10th Circuit has said that when you receive credit toward a state sentence for time, that mitigates the oppressiveness of any incarceration. [00:18:46] Speaker 00: I point the court to Garcia, to Frias, Medina. [00:18:49] Speaker 00: So the bulk of the time we're talking about was time, up until May 5, 2022, when Gutierrez did receive credit towards a state sentence. [00:18:58] Speaker 00: Starting in May 6, he comes into federal custody. [00:19:01] Speaker 00: We have the brief time period in May where he is arraigned, has his initial appearance and all of that. [00:19:07] Speaker 00: And within about a month, he files a motion to continue. [00:19:11] Speaker 00: And that continues the trial date into September. [00:19:14] Speaker 00: So all said and done, we have about four and a half months between the time he comes into federal custody when he's no longer receiving credit toward his state sentence to the time he pleas. [00:19:23] Speaker 00: And that's the period we're looking at for pre-trial detention. [00:19:26] Speaker 00: Because Betterman tells us that the clock stops ticking once he is plea, once he's convicted. [00:19:31] Speaker 00: the Speedy Trial Right detaches. [00:19:33] Speaker 00: So we're not looking at a one-year period. [00:19:38] Speaker 00: Then also, I'd like to turn to the argument that the sentence that he received is relevant towards the Speedy Trial Act. [00:19:45] Speaker 00: The Supreme Court has not held that. [00:19:46] Speaker 00: This court has not held that. [00:19:48] Speaker 00: In fact, this court has expressed skepticism in Jumev and in Nixon that that period of time would be relevant. [00:19:54] Speaker 00: And I think Betterman provides, while it doesn't directly address this issue, it provides some instruction on it in that Betterman focuses on the fact that the speedy trial right is designed to protect the accused rights and to address the concerns with the delay before trial. [00:20:09] Speaker 00: And when we start getting into the length of the sentence after conviction, that is not the interest that the speedy trial clause is designed to protect. [00:20:23] Speaker 00: Moving on to the anxiety and concern issue. [00:20:27] Speaker 01: Before you move off, the way Ms. [00:20:31] Speaker 01: Katz articulated it was if the proceedings had been sooner, the guideline range would have been lower. [00:20:44] Speaker 01: And then at sentencing, if the district court wanted to impose the sentence it did, it would have had [00:20:53] Speaker 01: provide a greater explanation than it did here. [00:20:58] Speaker 01: And so the government got the benefit of the delay because it wasn't required to provide evidence or explanation to the district court to justify a longer sentence. [00:21:11] Speaker 01: Why isn't that some basic level of prejudice? [00:21:16] Speaker 00: I think I'd like to start with the contention that the guideline range would have been different. [00:21:20] Speaker 00: And I think that premise is a faulty premise. [00:21:23] Speaker 00: Because when we look to 5G 1.3 application, note 2D explains how this adjustment occurs. [00:21:30] Speaker 00: And that takes us through step by step with an example. [00:21:33] Speaker 00: So in this case, the district court would correctly calculate the guideline range based on the offense level and the criminal history category. [00:21:40] Speaker 00: And then note 2D directs the district court to determine what would be an appropriate sentence, either within the range, above the range, whatever would be an appropriate sentence in the case. [00:21:49] Speaker 00: And then the court is directed to adjust [00:21:52] Speaker 00: that sentence based on the time served or remaining to be served in the state sentence. [00:21:58] Speaker 00: So there's no new guideline range. [00:22:00] Speaker 00: The guideline range stays the same. [00:22:03] Speaker 00: What would it be affected as far as the timing and sentencing would be how that, in this case, 24-month reduction for a state sentence would be taken into account in the sentence. [00:22:13] Speaker 00: So he received a 24-month state sentence. [00:22:16] Speaker 00: There's no greater amount than 24 months that he could have received credit for in any way, shape, or form. [00:22:21] Speaker 00: But had he been sentenced federally during the time he was still serving his state sentence, would the district court had discretion? [00:22:26] Speaker 00: It's not, in fact, mandatory because after Booker, we know that the application of that guideline would not be mandatory. [00:22:34] Speaker 00: But what the court could have done is said, okay, let's just say hypothetically it happened at the 12-month mark. [00:22:40] Speaker 00: I will reduce your sentence by 12 months to account for the 12 months you've already served. [00:22:44] Speaker 00: And then I will run your federal sentence concurrent with the remaining 12 months on your state sentence. [00:22:51] Speaker 00: So in the end, what ends up happening is a 24-month adjustment on the federal sentence. [00:22:58] Speaker 00: Part of that's taken into account through credit. [00:22:59] Speaker 00: Part of it's taken into account through concurrent sentence. [00:23:02] Speaker 00: Here, what happened is because the state sentence had been fully served, there's no way to run it concurrently, but there is a way to provide a 24-month reduction. [00:23:09] Speaker 00: And that's what the district court did in this case. [00:23:12] Speaker 00: I don't think it would have adjusted the explanation required, because when we look at the district court, what it did is it said, looking at your conduct. [00:23:21] Speaker 00: And nothing about the Speedy Trial claim affects what he [00:23:25] Speaker 00: did in this case, which is that he possessed a firearm. [00:23:28] Speaker 00: And that with that firearm, he committed aggravated assault on his wife by discharging the weapon at an occupied home while holding onto his wife on one of those occasions and while she was running into the home for safety. [00:23:38] Speaker 00: That is egregious conduct that the district court decided that a 70-month sentence would be appropriate to reflect. [00:23:43] Speaker 00: And that remains the same. [00:23:46] Speaker 00: So the district court said 70 months would be appropriate. [00:23:48] Speaker 00: We would reduce that. [00:23:49] Speaker 00: Then by 24 months, and that ends up with a 46-month sentence. [00:23:53] Speaker 00: So the district court imposed a 46-month sentence, which was at the top of his guideline range, to get to that place, based on both taking into account the egregiousness of the actions, but also taking into account the 24 months that he served. [00:24:09] Speaker 00: So in the end, I don't think it would have changed anything. [00:24:10] Speaker 00: It's the bottom line. [00:24:11] Speaker 00: That was a very long explanation to your question, Judge Simkovich. [00:24:15] Speaker 00: But I think there is no prejudice, whether you consider that under the oppressiveness of pretrial detention or under the impairment of defense, [00:24:23] Speaker 00: I don't think there's any case law to suggest that impairment of defense encompasses that, but I know that the defense has argued it in that context. [00:24:30] Speaker 00: But either way, I don't think it matters because there's really no impact on the sentence in this case. [00:24:38] Speaker 00: And in Toombs, this court has recognized that even where the defendant could demonstrate oppressive pretrial incarceration and anxiety and concern, the failure to demonstrate the impairment of defense is the most important prejudice factor. [00:24:52] Speaker 00: And without that, the defendant can't have that prejudice factor weigh in his favor. [00:24:59] Speaker 02: What about the appeal waiver? [00:25:01] Speaker 02: What is your view of what's in and out of the appeal based on that appeal waiver? [00:25:07] Speaker 00: So the appeal waiver in this case is clear. [00:25:10] Speaker 00: It exempts the appeal from the district court's denial of the [00:25:15] Speaker 00: speedy trial motion, the motion to dismiss the indictment on CB trial grounds. [00:25:18] Speaker 00: It refers to the docket number of the memorandum of opinion that the defendant can appeal. [00:25:23] Speaker 00: That opinion contains nothing about the sentencing argument. [00:25:27] Speaker 00: The 5K 2.6 appears nowhere in there. [00:25:30] Speaker 00: The appellate waiver is very clear that it covers the sentence and the manner in which it's determined. [00:25:36] Speaker 00: And the district courts, whether you call it an upward departure or a guideline sentence, the label really doesn't matter. [00:25:43] Speaker 00: That is the calculation of the sentence. [00:25:45] Speaker 00: That falls squarely within the scope of the appellate waiver. [00:25:49] Speaker 00: I know the defendant has also raised arguments as to miscarriage of justice, but Hahn and Smith foreclosed those arguments. [00:25:56] Speaker 00: Hahn has said that the question is whether or not the waiver is otherwise unlawful, not whether or not you can identify some sort of potential sentencing error. [00:26:04] Speaker 00: We don't believe there was any error here. [00:26:05] Speaker 00: But even if the defendant could identify that, that is not enough to show that there's a miscarriage of justice enforcing the waiver. [00:26:11] Speaker 02: Well, during argument this morning, counsel stated that the appeal waiver couldn't have been knowing involuntary because of information that the defendant didn't have when he executed it. [00:26:26] Speaker 02: That struck me as a new argument. [00:26:29] Speaker 02: I thought that the briefs, there was no argument that it wasn't knowing, that appeal waiver itself was not knowing involuntary. [00:26:37] Speaker 02: Am I correct or incorrect? [00:26:39] Speaker 00: My understanding is the same, Judge McHugh. [00:26:41] Speaker 00: In fact, I think in our brief, we specifically say we're not going to address knowing involuntary because the defendant hasn't raised it. [00:26:46] Speaker 00: And so we have not had an opportunity to address that. [00:26:48] Speaker 00: In any event, Han makes clear that the fact that you couldn't anticipate what might have happened down the road doesn't invalidate an appellate waiver. [00:26:54] Speaker 00: So I don't think that argument has legs, even if the court were to address it. [00:27:03] Speaker 00: Moving back to anxiety and concern, I think I haven't addressed that one. [00:27:08] Speaker 00: Certainly, I think any federal arrestee facing federal charges experiences anxiety and concern. [00:27:15] Speaker 02: And the question... Well, I do think it's a little different. [00:27:19] Speaker 02: You've committed a crime and you have no knowledge that there's going to be a parallel federal action. [00:27:30] Speaker 02: You get sentenced to two years in state prison. [00:27:36] Speaker 02: and you go through counting off your calendar and you get to the end thinking, you know, free at last and all of a sudden you get hit with the new federal charges. [00:27:49] Speaker 02: I mean, it seems to me that's a different character of surprise, anxiety, concern, particularly given the health concerns at the time with the pandemic. [00:28:03] Speaker 00: I think there's some level of surprise and shock anytime an individual learns that they're facing federal charges. [00:28:08] Speaker 02: Well, the difference here is that I've been given my sentence and I've duly served it. [00:28:16] Speaker 00: And I can see how that would be different. [00:28:18] Speaker 00: But I would say that looking at tombs, that's not going to be enough without any evidence of impairment of the defense and any evidence of oppressive pretrial incarceration. [00:28:27] Speaker 00: I mean, here, because he received credit for the bulk of this, [00:28:30] Speaker 00: We're talking about four and a half months, two of which were because he actually requested that his trial date be continued. [00:28:36] Speaker 02: Which was a tiny fraction. [00:28:39] Speaker 00: It was. [00:28:39] Speaker 00: It was. [00:28:40] Speaker 00: But at the same time, the time that he didn't receive credit for in state custody amounts to a total of four and a half months in federal pretrial detention. [00:28:49] Speaker 00: And that's not the type of detention that this court is typically described as oppressive. [00:28:55] Speaker 00: That's not something so out of character with what typically accompanies [00:29:00] Speaker 00: the federal process. [00:29:02] Speaker 01: Do you know why he wasn't given notice? [00:29:05] Speaker 01: And conversely, why wasn't the government moving this case? [00:29:10] Speaker 00: I don't know why he wasn't given the notice. [00:29:13] Speaker 00: The record shows that the government did provide the detainer and the indictment to the Metropolitan Detention Center. [00:29:20] Speaker 00: But it's silent on, well, other than the Metropolitan Detention Center saying, we don't typically provide that. [00:29:26] Speaker 00: There's no indication as to why he couldn't have been separately notified. [00:29:30] Speaker 00: I can't speak to that. [00:29:31] Speaker 00: And as far as why the government wasn't moving the case, before the district court, we explained that we were given direction by the US Marshals not to writ people from state custody into federal custody. [00:29:42] Speaker 01: But as you pointed out, you were doing video conferencing, and a lot of the busy work could have been. [00:29:50] Speaker 00: Sure. [00:29:51] Speaker 00: But a lot of the busy work in this case was handled in the first seven days that he was in federal custody. [00:29:55] Speaker 00: So I don't think that really had a significant impact in the timing of this case. [00:29:59] Speaker 00: I mean, ultimately, the problem was that he couldn't go to trial. [00:30:02] Speaker 00: And that was the focus of the district court. [00:30:04] Speaker 00: The district court didn't focus on the marshals' policy. [00:30:06] Speaker 00: The district court said that it found it justified to not bring him over during a time in which the federal jury trials had been suspended in large part. [00:30:14] Speaker 00: There were some periods of time where they could have been held, but also where his state proceedings were pending. [00:30:19] Speaker 00: And in Nixon, this court has recognized, even outside the context of a global pandemic, that there's an interest in not ping-ponging a defendant back and forth [00:30:26] Speaker 00: We didn't know what pretrial litigation would occur in this case. [00:30:29] Speaker 00: You don't know whether the defendant would consent to a Zoom plea. [00:30:34] Speaker 00: Perhaps he wouldn't. [00:30:35] Speaker 00: There were a lot of- Well, he would know if you asked him. [00:30:38] Speaker 00: That's true. [00:30:38] Speaker 00: That's sort of the difficulty with looking back on this too from 2025 to a period of time in 2020 where there was a lot of things in flux. [00:30:48] Speaker 00: So I mean, perhaps there might have been a way to proceed more efficiently knowing what we know now, but there was [00:30:55] Speaker 00: The district court itself, when it denied the speedy trial motion, didn't even know that he would plea at that point. [00:30:59] Speaker 00: And so it can't be evaluated with hindsight, knowing what we know now, what the district court didn't have in front of it at the time. [00:31:06] Speaker 00: If there are no further questions. [00:31:11] Speaker 03: I have no. [00:31:15] Speaker 00: Thank you. [00:31:16] Speaker 00: Thank you. [00:31:17] Speaker 01: If you want rebuttal, you can have 90 seconds. [00:31:21] Speaker 01: You don't have to. [00:31:25] Speaker 01: We took all your time at the beginning. [00:31:30] Speaker 03: I think it's disingenuous when the government says that there wouldn't have been a way to do it. [00:31:35] Speaker 03: We were doing it every day. [00:31:36] Speaker 03: And at least 97% of people in federal criminal cases plead guilty. [00:31:42] Speaker 03: But they're still entitled to the fundamental rights of knowing what they're charged with and having an attorney and having somebody that can protect their rights. [00:31:54] Speaker 03: not an excuse for not honoring Mr. Gutierrez's speedy trial rights. [00:32:02] Speaker 01: Thank you. [00:32:03] Speaker 01: Thank you, counsel. [00:32:04] Speaker 01: Counselor excused. [00:32:05] Speaker 01: We appreciate the arguments, and the case is submitted.