Opinion ID: 2976722
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Consideration of Other Factors

Text: We now address the district court’s discussion of Hughes’s efforts as an African-American urologist to aid the community of African-American males regarding urological issues. The district court stated during the sentencing hearing: 15 The court is very impressed with the fact that Dr. Hughes is apparently, according to everybody who’s written to me, the only black urologist in the Nashville area serving an extremely important role in the medical community of Nashville given the high incidence of prostate cancer among African-American males. That is apparently a specialty of his in terms of treatment and in terms of service to the community in many, many different ways, providing free screenings, serving on panels, lecturing, serving through his church in this area. It appears to the court that Dr. Hughes is performing an extremely important role in the African-American community in the healthcare area. J.A. at 56 (Sent. Hr’g Tr. at 20:5-18). The government argues that the district court inappropriately considered Hughes’s race when determining his sentence. See U.S.S.G. § 5H1.10 (stating that “race, sex, national origin, creed, religion, and socio-economic status” are “not relevant in the determination of a sentence”) (initial capitals removed). The government stated in its brief: “While the court was entitled to consider defendant’s volunteer work in the community, the defendant’s race is an irrelevant and improper factor to consider in the [sic] determining a sentence.” Gov’t Br. at 16. In response, Hughes argues that the district court did not choose his sentence because he is African-American; on the contrary, Hughes argues that “race was merely incidental” to a description of his community work. Appellee Br. at 13-14. As with other aspects of judicial decisionmaking, we must consider the appearance created by particular judicial actions. Even in a case in which we had full “‘confiden[ce]’” that a district court had not used a defendant’s race as a basis for determining the appropriate sentence to impose, United States v. Kaba, 480 F.3d 152, 157 (2d Cir. 2007) (quoting United States v. Leung, 40 F.3d 577, 586 (2d Cir. 1994)), we must consider the appearance created by the district court’s sentence. Id. at 156. “Because ‘justice must satisfy the appearance of justice,’ even the appearance that the 16 sentence reflects a defendant’s race or nationality will ordinarily require a remand for resentencing.’” Id. We believe, based on the record before us, that the district court did not consider Hughes’s race when fashioning his sentence. In addition, the record does not indicate that a “reasonable observer,” Kaba, 480 F.3d at 157 (quoting Leung, 40 F.3d at 586-87), would have concluded that there was even the appearance that Hughes’s race played a role in the district court’s sentencing determination. Unlike Kaba, the district court in Hughes’s case did not suggest that the sentence was based on Hughes’s race or national origin, only that it was partly based on his community service. Our review of the record indicates that the district court continually mentioned Hughes’s race in conjunction with his community service activities, namely his ability to put other African-American males at ease, which enabled an under-served population in Tennessee to have access to urological consultations essential to prostate health. The district court cited the importance of Hughes’s skillset for the African-American male population. J.A. at 56 (Sent. Hr’g Tr. at 20:5-18). We agree with the district court’s assessment that Hughes’s civic activities in general are laudable and surely deserve to be considered by the district court, as the government conceded. Because our review of the record indicates that a reasonable observer would not have considered Hughes’s race to have played a role in his sentence, we conclude that the district court did not consider race in a manner that warrants vacating Hughes’s sentence.