United States v. Malmquist, 92 F.4th 555

Shawn Malmquist pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine pursuant to a plea agreement.
The plea agreement stipulated that the Government would recommend a three-level reduction for acceptance of responsibility.
After entering the plea, the Presentence Investigation Report recommended against the reduction due to Malmquist’s violation of pretrial release conditions (drug use and new drug possession arrest).
At sentencing, the Government opposed the reduction, arguing Malmquist had not accepted responsibility given his conduct post-indictment.
The district court denied the reduction, imposed a sentence of 151 months (below the recommended guideline range), and Malmquist appealed, arguing prosecutorial misconduct and breach of plea agreement.
The Fifth Circuit reviewed the breach under plain error analysis due to lack of objection at trial.

Issue	Plaintiff’s Argument	Defendant’s Argument	Held
Whether Gov’t breached the plea agreement by opposing 3-level reduction	Government’s advocacy against reduction was a breach, affecting fairness and sentence	Malmquist’s violations merited denial, and reduction would be denied regardless	The Government’s conduct was breach, was plain error, and affected sentence; sentence vacated
Whether the breach affected substantial rights	Breach created a reasonable probability of a lower sentence	Court’s below-guideline sentence showed outcome unchanged	Plain error affected substantial rights; probable lower sentence but for breach
Whether the breach undermined integrity of proceedings	Breach undermined confidence in justice system, as promise induced waiver of rights	Defendant continued post-indictment criminal behavior, so no miscarriage	Government did not rebut presumption of miscarriage of justice; breach affected integrity
Whether appellate waiver bars review	Breach voided the plea agreement, including waiver	Appellate waiver normally bars claims	Breach releases defendant from appeal waiver under Circuit precedent

United States v. Keresztury, 293 F.3d 750 (5th Cir. 2002) (Government’s breach of plea agreement voids defendant’s appellate waiver)
United States v. Kirkland, 851 F.3d 499 (5th Cir. 2017) (Plain error analysis when Government actively argues against its plea agreement promise)
United States v. Puckett, 556 U.S. 129 (2009) (Standards for plain error review and effect of plea agreement breach)
United States v. Gonzalez, 309 F.3d 882 (5th Cir. 2002) (Breach of plea agreement voids appeal waiver)
United States v. Munoz, 408 F.3d 222 (5th Cir. 2005) (Breach of plea agreement is a serious, often egregious, error)