Martinez v. Dretke

How later courts describe this case

• upholding appeal waiver as valid where district court treated the Guidelines as mandatory in violation of Booker
• “The relevant question ... is not whether [defendant’s] sentence is unlawful ..., but whether ... his appeal waiver itself [is] unenforceable.”
• “As we have held, evidence of organic brain injury presents a ‘double-edged’ sword, and deference is accorded to counsel’s informed decision to avert harm that may befall the defendant by not submitting evidence of this nature.”
• similarly refusing to void appeal waiver in light of alleged sentencing error, because “[t]he relevant question ... is not whether [the] sentence is unlawful ..., but whether ... [the] appeal waiver itself [is] unenforceable ” (emphasis added)