Akana

United States v. Akana

Good Law
54 F. App'x 890
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth CircuitDecember 24, 2002No. 00-16726; D.C. No. CV-00-00235-PMPCalifornia253 words

Opinion

Lead Opinion

MEMORANDUM *

Defendant-Appellant Thomas Kaimanu Akana (“Akana”) seeks specific performance of his plea agreement in which he explicitly waived his rights to appeal and to attack his sentence collaterally. Akana claims that the government was obligated by the terms of the plea agreement to move for a downward departure for substantial assistance, which the government refused to do at sentencing. We disagree.

The government was under no obligation to move for the downward departure that Akana seeks. See United States v. Vences, 169 F.3d 611, 613 (9th Cir.1999); United States v. Flores-Payon, 942 F.2d 556, 561-62 (9th Cir.1991). Any obligation to file such a motion was entirely discretionary on the part of the government, which had legitimate and non-discriminatory reasons for declining to so move: Akana’s promised cooperation was less than complete, *891 and he was indicted on unrelated drug charges shortly before his sentencing. See Wade v. United States, 504 U.S. 181, 185 , 112 S.Ct. 1840 , 118 L.Ed.2d 524 (1992). Nor was the district court under any obligation to continue Akana’s sentencing to enable him to “clear up” those charges. See United States v. Lewis, 991 F.2d 524, 528…

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