Zavala

BACKGROUND

After Zavala was convicted, the sentencing process took hold, but before it was complete the Supreme Court decided Booker. The parties and the district court were well aware of that fact. Because it knew that it must consult the Sentencing Guidelines, which were now advisory, the district court then issued a presentencing order in which it calculated the Guide- line range. That calculation generated a life sentence as the “range.”2 At the commencement of the sentencing hearing, the district court assumed that the calculated “Guideline range becomes a presumptive sentence,” and the court must then decide if the other factors in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) “would jus- tify the Court in imposing a lesser sentence than that set forth in the Guideline range.” Moreover, the district court declared that the burden was on Zavala to explain any justification for imposing a different sentence—one below life imprisonment.

The government then argued for a life sentence. When 1 See United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 125 S. Ct. 738, 160 L. Ed. 2d 621 (2005). 2 Pursuant to the Guidelines, the offense level was 43 and the criminal history category III. USSG §§ 2D1.1, 3B1.1. All…