Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca10-89-06173/USCOURTS-ca10-89-06173-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Howard Eugene Hughes
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

PUBLISH 

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS 

TENTH CIRCUIT 

FI LED 

United States Court of Aptxtals 'I'end .. 1 C:irrui~ 

APR - 9 1990 

ROBERT L. HOECKER 

· Clerk 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ) 

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Plaintiff-Appellee, 

v. No. 89-6173 

HOWARD EUGENE HUGHES, 

Defendant-Appellant. 

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA 

(D.C. No. CR-89-5-W) 

Rand C. Eddy, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Oklahoma City, 

Oklahoma, for the Defendant-Appellant. 

Frank Michael Ringer (Robert E. Mydans, United States Attorney, 

and Ted A. Richardson, Assistant United States Attorney, on the 

briefs), Assistant United States Attorney, Oklahoma City, 

Oklahoma, for the Plaintiff-Appellee. 

Before TACHA an~ BALDOCK, Circuit Judges, and O'CONNOR, Chief 

District Judge. 

TACHA, Circuit Judge. 

* The Honorable Earl E. O'Connor, Chief Judge, United States 

District Court for the District of Kansas, sitting by designation. 

Appellate Case: 89-6173 Document: 01019569660 Date Filed: 04/09/1990 Page: 1 
Defendant Howard Eugene Hughes appeals the district court's 

imposition of sentence pursuant to the career offender provision 

of the Sentencing Reform Act, 28 U.S.C. section 994(h) (as 

implemented by section 4Bl.l of the United States Sentencing 

Guidelines), on the ground that his sentence violates the eighth 

amendment to the Constitution, U.S. Const. amend. VIII. We 

affirm. 

On November 22, 1988 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Hughes 

hijacked a cab and ordered the driver to pick up his two male 

codefendants, Gwynne Phillips and Gerald Banks. After picking up 

Phillips and Banks and locking the cab driver in the trunk, the 

defendants drove the cab to the Heartland Federal Savings and 

Loan. 

Hughes and Phillips entered the bank while Banks waited 

outside in the cab. Phillips, disguised as a female in a long 

white evening gown and a long wig, approached a teller at the 

counter. Phillips pointed a semi-automatic handgun at the teller, 

demanded money, and received a cash box containing approximately 

$50;000. At the same time, Hughes approached a teller at her 

desk, pointed a .22 submachine gun at her, and took money from a 

drive-in teller drawer. Hughes then pushed the second teller from 

her desk toward the counter while swinging his submachine gun in 

the air. He instructed the teller to open the safe and removed a 

cash box and a bag of nickels. Hughes and Phillips told the 

tellers to lie on the floor and then left the savings and loan, 

taking with them $62,744. 

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Appellate Case: 89-6173 Document: 01019569660 Date Filed: 04/09/1990 Page: 2 
( 

On February 15, 1989, Hughes pleaded guilty to robbery of a 

federally insured savings and loan institution and jeopardizing 

someone's life with a dangerous weapon during the commission of 

the robbery, in violation of 18 u.s.c. sections 2113(a) and (d). 

Hughes' presentence report reveals two relevant prior felony 

convictions. On September 11, 1985, Hughes was convicted as an 

eighteen-year-old adult for the felony of attempted first degree 

robbery when he knocked a woman to the ground and tried to take 

her purse. One year later Hughes was convicted a second time for 

the felony of residential burglary, which is a "crime of violence" 

under the Guidelines, see U.S.S.G. section 4Bl.2, comment. (n.2). 

In light of Hughes' two prior felony convictions for crimes 

of violence, the district court determined that Hughes was a 

career offender pursuant. to section 4Bl.l of the Guidelines, which 

provides that: 

A defendant is a career offender if (1) the defendant 

was at least eighteen years old at the time of the 

instant offense, (2) the instant offense of conviction 

is a felony that is either a crime of violence or a 

controlled substance offense, and (3) the defendant has 

at least two prior felony convictions of either a crime 

of violence or a controlled substance offense. If the 

offense level for a career criminal in the table below 

is greater than the offense level otherwise applicable, 

the offense level from the table below shall apply. A 

career offender's criminal history category in every 

case shall be category VI. 

Based on an offense level of 34 and a criminal history category of 

VI, Hughes' guideline range was 262-300 months. The district 

court sentenced Hughes to 262 months. 

We have examined Hughes' contention that his sentence 

violates the eighth amendment and find it meritless. Hughes' 

sentence of 262 months for his third felony conviction for a crime 

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Appellate Case: 89-6173 Document: 01019569660 Date Filed: 04/09/1990 Page: 3 
of violence is within the applicable guideline range for a career 

offender. As we stated in United States v. Gourley, 835 F.2d 249 

(10th Cir. 1987}: 

The eighth amendment requires that a sentence not be 

disproportionate to the severity of the crime or involve 

unnecessary infliction of pain. Within this limitation, 

the determination of proper penalties for crimes is a 

matter for the legislature. If a sentence imposed is 

within the statutory limits, the appellate court 

generally will not regard it as cruel and unusual 

punishment. 

Id. at 252-53 (citations omitted}. Although Gourley was decided 

before the Guidelines came into effect, we see no reason to alter 

its principle of judicial deference to legislative enactment of 

the Sentencing Guidelines. 

Hughes' situation does not even remotely resemble the 

disproportionate severity of the sentence struck down in Solem v. 

Helm, 463 U.S. 277 (1983). 1 In Solem, the defendant received a 

sentence of life in prison without parole under the state's 

recidivist statute because of his prior convictions for six 

felonies, all of which were minor and nonviolent and none of which 

was a crime against a person. Hughes has been convicted three 

times for crimes of violence against persons or property within 

the last five years. His sentence of 262 months is proportionate 

to the gravity of his third offense, armed robbery and 

1 Other than Solem, there have been only two other instances 

where the Supreme Court found a sentence to be so disproportionate 

to the severity of the offense that it violated the eighth 

amendment. Coker~ Georgia, 433 U.S. 584 (1976), struck down a 

death sentence for rape, and United States v. Weems, 217 U.S. 349 

(1909), struck down a sentence of fifteen years at hard labor for 

falsifying a government form. 

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Appellate Case: 89-6173 Document: 01019569660 Date Filed: 04/09/1990 Page: 4 
jeopardizing someone's life with a dangerous weapon during the 

commission of a robbery. 

Hughes contends that the Sentencing Guidelines' career 

of fender provisions violate the eighth amendment by "mechanically" 

aggregating disparate offenses without regard to the seriousness 

of the offenses or adequately considering the defendant's personal 

characteristics. We disagree. The sentencing judge retains 

discretion to depart downward from the Guidelines in appropriate 

cases. See u.s.S.G. section 5K2.0, p.s. Thus, even if the eighth 

amendment were to require that the sentencing judge retain some 

measure of discretion in imposing sentence, the degree of 

discretion afforded under the Guidelines clearly is sufficient. 

The decision of the district court is AFFIRMED. 

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Appellate Case: 89-6173 Document: 01019569660 Date Filed: 04/09/1990 Page: 5