Opinion ID: 6538
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: calvin brown

Text: 36 The PSR calculated Brown's criminal offense level at 36, with a criminal history category of I, translating to a punishment range of 188-235 months. The district court departed downwardly from the applicable guideline range and imposed concurrent 120-month terms of imprisonment. The only reason the court gave for its departure was to sentence the defendant to a term of incarceration consistent with other defendants who were more culpable but benefitted in sentencing by nature of their plea agreements. 37 A district court is authorized to depart downwardly from application of the sentencing guidelines when there exists a[ ] ... mitigating circumstance of a kind, or to a degree, not adequately taken into consideration by the Sentencing Commission in formulating the guidelines. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3553(b). This standard obviously limits the judge's discretion to depart from the applicable guideline ranges, and we review de novo the legal issue of whether a factor was permissibly relied on as a grounds for a departure. United States v. Shano, 955 F.2d 291, 294 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 1520, 118 L.Ed.2d 201 (1992). 38 We have held that a district court may not depart downwardly based solely on the disparity of sentences among co-defendants or co-conspirators. United States v. Ives, 984 F.2d 649, 651 (5th Cir.1993); see also United States v. Ellis, 975 F.2d 1061, 1066 (4th Cir.1992); United States v. Wogan, 938 F.2d 1446, 1448-49 (1st Cir.1991); United States v. Joyner, 924 F.2d 454, 459-61 (2d Cir.1991). In Ives, the defendant argued that the district court erred when it refused to depart downwardly to harmonize his sentence with the much shorter sentences imposed against equally culpable co-conspirators. Id. at 650. In rejecting the defendant's argument, we were persuaded by the the clear trend ... to hold that a district court may not under any circumstances depart from a recommended Guidelines' sentence--either upward or downward--for the purpose of achieving parity or equity between co-defendants. Id. 39 Because we conclude that the district court impermissibly departed downwardly in sentencing Brown, we vacate his sentence and remand for resentencing. See Williams v. United States, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 1112, 117 L.Ed.2d 341 (1992).