There they go again…

Thanks to Appellate Law & Practice, I see that the circuits are back in Booker action, and later tonight I hope to discuss a few federal and state Booker/Blakely cases that hit my virtual desk today.

But catching my eye first is the amusingly opaque unpublished Booker disposition coming from the First Circuit today in US v. Brichetto, No. 04-1820, (1st Cir. Feb. 15, 2005)(available here).  In this case, the First Circuit makes its first mention of Booker with this lone comment while affirming a conviction: “Brichetto has appropriately waived the Booker claim of sentencing error he originally pursued on appeal.”  I am inclined to assume this means the defendant withdrew his claim (perhaps for fear of getting a tougher sentence on remand), but the use of the term “waived” has piqued my curiosity about whether “appropriately” is the same as “voluntarily” in this case.