Opinion ID: 765600
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Adjustment for Obstruction of Justice

Text: 9 The trial court imposed a two-level upward adjustment to Monzon's offense level for testifying falsely at trial. An adjustment may be imposed under USSG S 3C1.1, if the district judge determines that the defendant committed perjury, i.e., gave false testimony concerning a material matter with the willful intent to provide false testimony, rather than as a result of confusion, mistake, or faulty memory. United States v. Dunnigan, 507 U.S. 87, 94 (1993). 10 It is not enough that the defendant chose to testify and was convicted. Imposing the enhancement without a judicial finding of perjury might unduly burden the defendant's Constitutional right to testify. Id. at 96-97. TheSupreme Court has demanded that if a defendant objects to a sentence enhancement resulting from her trial testimony, a district court must review the evidence and make independent findings necessary to establish a willful impediment to or obstruction of justice, or an attempt to do the same . . . . Id. at 95. 11 Monzon points out that the district court failed to make the necessary Dunnigan finding of perjury. A district court should address each element of the alleged perjury in a separate and clear finding. Id. We have accepted perfunctory findings as long as they are clearly supported by the record. See, e.g., United States v. Oplinger, 150 F.3d 1061, 1070-71 (9th Cir. 1998) (because of numerous witnesses and documents demonstrating the defendant's statements were false, accepting district court statement that [t]he evidence shows that he did testify as [sic] a material, relevant issue of fact falsely). 12 In this case, the district judge did not make an independent finding that Monzon had committed perjury. At the sentencing hearing, the district court instead relied solely on the inconsistency between the verdict and Monzon's testimony. This is precisely the result Dunnigan seeks to avoid. The Presentence Report's conclusion that Monzon testified falsely may ultimately prove justified by the record, but Dunnigan does not permit the judge to delegate to the presentence report writer the judicial fact finding function.