Unreported / Non-Citable
Background
Ryan Stevens approached two men who were displaying bundles of cash on a crowded nightlife street in Austin, Texas. He brandished a firearm and took the cash, then pointed the firearm at one man’s head when the man protested. Stevens also kicked an officer while police detained him.
Stevens pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g). His plea agreement waived his right to appeal his sentence on any ground other than prosecutorial misconduct or ineffective assistance of counsel. The district court imposed an above-Guidelines sentence of 168 months’ imprisonment.
The Court’s Holding
On appeal, Stevens argued for the first time that the district court had incorrectly calculated his criminal-history score. Although that claim did not fall within either express exception to his appellate waiver, Stevens contended that the alleged error produced a sentence based on materially untrue facts and therefore constituted a miscarriage of justice.
The Fifth Circuit rejected that characterization. It held that Stevens presented a run-of-the-mill challenge to the district court’s application of the Sentencing Guidelines, not a miscarriage of justice that could overcome his appellate waiver. The court therefore enforced the waiver and dismissed the appeal.
Key Takeaways
- A plea agreement’s appellate waiver barred Stevens’s challenge to the calculation of his criminal-history score.
- An ordinary Guidelines-calculation claim does not become a miscarriage of justice merely because the defendant frames it as a due-process violation based on materially untrue facts.
- Because Stevens’s claim fell outside the waiver’s exceptions for prosecutorial misconduct and ineffective assistance of counsel, the Fifth Circuit dismissed the appeal.
Why It Matters
The decision reinforces the Fifth Circuit’s enforcement of sentencing-appeal waivers against routine Guidelines disputes. Defendants generally cannot avoid a valid waiver simply by recasting an alleged calculation error as a constitutional violation or miscarriage of justice.