Opinion ID: 70404
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Extreme conduct (racial/ethnic motivation for crimes; planned mutilation of victims)

Text: 33 The Prices do not challenge the trial court's determination that racist or anti-semitic motivation for a crime was a proper basis for departure. 9 Instead, they argue that their actions were not racially or ethnically motivated, and that it was clear error for the trial court to find that they were. Our review, then, is limited to determining whether the trial court's factual findings are clearly erroneous. 34 We find no clear error in the trial court's finding that the Prices were motivated by ethnic hatred in their harassment of Leon Capouano. While it is true that the court, as well as the government, acknowledged that two primary motivators for the Prices' conduct were greed and business litigation, the trial court concluded that racial and ethnic prejudice also played a part. See McAninch, 994 F.2d at 1388 (affirming trial court's conclusion that hatred was motivator of crime despite evidence that psychological problems could have been the cause). The Prices knew that Capouano was Jewish, and when they vandalized his home they painted swastikas and anti-semitic and racist remarks designed to strike at his religious heritage. The Prices also made repeated anti-semitic remarks about Capouano and Jews in general. While the Prices counter that any racist and anti-semitic conduct was impulsive and isolated, there is evidence that the Prices put some thought into what they did and how they did it. See United States v. Sanders, 41 F.3d 480, 485 (9th Cir.1994) (holding that racist and anti-semitic letters, though short and simplistic, evidenced deliberation where defendant had to look up addresses and tailor each message to the group he was attacking), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 2010, 131 L.Ed.2d 1009 (1995). 35 As for the proposed mutilation of IRS agent Dwight Huff, the Sentencing Commission did not adequately provide for such a grisly variety of the crime when it designed the applicable guidelines for conspiracy, solicitation, or murder-for-hire. See U.S.S.G. Sec. 5K2.8 (allowing departure where defendant's conduct was unusually heinous, cruel, brutal, or degrading to victim). As the trial court concluded, these crimes were more depraved than the typical cases the guidelines were designed to cover, so that a departure based in part on the proposed mutilation of Huff was warranted. Further, we find no clear error in the trial court's underlying factual findings. John Price explicitly ordered Huff's well-damaged carcass in a taped conversation with the FBI. 36