United States v. Ray

Before: LEVAL, CABRANES, and LIVINGSTON, Circuit Judges.

We consider in this opinion several challenges to a sentence imposed fifteen years after a conviction. Defendant-appellant Shenna*fn2 Deloache Ray appeals from a June 3, 2008 judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Thomas C. Platt, Judge), convicting her of conspiracy to commit mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371. Ray had pleaded guilty to the charge on December 27, 1991, but her case was remanded on direct appeal pursuant to a stipulation by the parties to seek resentencing before the District Court. App. 59 (Jan. 14, 1993 Order in No. 92-1281-cr). The case then lay dormant for fifteen years until defendant was finally summoned for resentencing in January 2008. After holding a hearing, the District Court sentenced Ray to a one-day term of imprisonment and three years of supervised release with a special condition that she serve six months in a halfway house. On appeal, Ray seeks vacatur of her conviction and a dismissal of the indictment against her on the ground that she was deprived of her right to a speedy sentencing under the Speedy Trial Clause of the Sixth Amendment. Ray also seeks relief for a violation of her right to a speedy sentence pursuant to the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Alternatively, Ray seeks a remand for resentencing because, in her view, a six-month commitment to a halfway house is substantively unreasonable because it would serve no rehabilitative purpose in light of the fact that she has committed no crimes in the fifteen years since this Court remanded her case for resentencing.