Opinion ID: 201981
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Enhancement for Pattern of Activity

Text: 11 Robinson was sentenced in April 2005, after the Supreme Court decided United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005). In Booker, the Supreme Court excised the portions of the U.S.Code that purported to make the United States Sentencing Guidelines binding upon the district courts during sentencing. After Booker, the Guidelines are merely advisory, which means that a district court has considerable leeway to impose a sentence that falls outside of the range suggested by the Guidelines. 12 In Booker, the Court also severed and excised 18 U.S.C. § 3742(e), the portion of the Federal Sentencing Act that once provided the standard under which courts of appeals would review sentences. See Booker, 123 S.Ct. at 765. To fill the vacuum thus created, the Court named the new standard: courts of appeals would review sentences for reasonableness. Id. 13 Before proceeding to evaluate Robinson's claims, we must determine what reasonableness review means when we are faced with a challenge to a sentencing court's legal interpretation of a Guidelines provision. In the past, our general rule has been to review interpretations of the legal meaning of the Guidelines de novo. See United States v. DiSanto, 86 F.3d 1238, 1254 (1st Cir.1996). We conclude that Booker's new reasonableness standard leaves our review of such questions unchanged. 14 Despite Booker 's excision of certain portions of the statute, the Sentencing Act still imposes certain requirements on a sentencing court. It prescribes a set of factors, set forth at 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), that a sentencing court must take into account in imposing a sentence. In Booker, the Supreme Court recognized that those factors would guide appellate review for reasonableness. See Booker, 125 S.Ct. at 766 (Section 3553(a) remains in effect, and sets forth numerous factors that guide sentencing. Those factors in turn will guide appellate courts, as they have in the past, in determining whether a sentence is unreasonable.). 15 Among the factors that a district court must consider is the sentencing range recommended by the Guidelines. 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(4)(A). A sentencing court is still required to consult [the] Guidelines and take them into account when sentencing. Booker, 125 S.Ct. at 767. The court is not bound to impose a sentence within the range the Guidelines recommend, of course, and may depart from it if it reasonably concludes that the other § 3553 factors warrant such a departure. However, so far as the Guidelines bear upon the sentence imposed, the court's calculation must be correct, subject of course to the limitations of plain error or harmless error review. To this extent, then, the court must rely, in imposing a sentence, on a correct understanding of the legal meaning of the Guidelines. 16 We conclude therefore that the decision in Booker did not disturb the standard of review that we apply to a district court's interpretation of the Guidelines. We will continue to determine the legal meaning of Guidelines provisions de novo. This conclusion is, to our knowledge, consistent with the conclusion reached by those of our sister circuits that have resolved the standard of review to be applied to a post- Booker sentence imposed under the Guidelines. See, e.g., United States v. Crosby, 397 F.3d 103, 114 (2d Cir.2005); United States v. Villegas, 404 F.3d 355, 359 (5th Cir.2005); United States v. Hazelwood, 398 F.3d 792, 794-95, 800-01 (6th Cir.2005); United States v. Doe, 398 F.3d 1254, 1257-58 & n. 5 (10th Cir.2005); United States v. Price, 409 F.3d 436, 442 (D.C.Cir.2005). 17 Having determined the appropriate standard of review, we now turn to Robinson's USSG § 2A6.2(b)(1)(D) arguments.
18 The U.S. Probation Office prepared and submitted to the parties a proposed presentence investigation report, which did not recommend application of § 2A6.2(b)(1)(D). The government stated that it had no objections to the recommendations made in the report. Robinson, however, registered a number of objections. The probation office revised the report in response to Robinson's objections, and submitted the revised version to the district court. In a memorandum submitted to the court only in response to the revised presentence report, the government for the first time asked the court to apply § 2A6.2(b)(1)(D). 19 Robinson argues that, because the government had an opportunity to ask the court to apply § 2A6.2(b)(1)(D) before submission of the revised report, and did not avail itself of that opportunity, the government waived any possible application of that guideline, and that the court was therefore wrong to apply it. The application of a particular guideline and imposition of a sentence are not, however, the government's to waive in a case, such as this one, where the defendant has pled guilty without the benefit of a plea agreement as to sentencing. See Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(c)(1)(C) & (c)(4). Robinson's argument supposes that the presentence report limits the sentence the court may impose, but that is simply not the case. The presentence report and the government's response to it are advisory, intended to help the district court arrive at an appropriate sentence. The responsibility, and with it the power, to recognize the applicable law and impose a sentence under it belong to the judge. See United States v. Miller, 116 F.3d 641, 685 (2d Cir.1997) ([T]he sentencing judge is not bound by the recommendations of the PSR. . . .); United States v. Gordon, 895 F.2d 932, 936 (4th Cir.1990) ([T]he decision of the district court on whether to apply a particular guideline is not controlled by the probation officer's recommendation.). The court was therefore free to impose a sentence under the Guidelines regardless of the recommendations in the presentence report or whether any objections to that report were raised by the government.
20 The government next argues that we need not consider Robinson's argument about the applicability of USSG § 2A6.2(b)(1)(D), because the question is of no more than academic interest. This is because, the government says, the sentence Robinson received, which incorporated a 2-level enhancement under § 2A6.2(b)(1), would have been permissible even if the court had found that section inapplicable. The government notes that, with § 2A6.2(b)(1)(D) taken into account, the Guidelines recommended sentencing at greater than 60 months, the statutory maximum, while without § 2A6.2 in the mix, the recommended range would have been 51 to 63 months. The government is correct that a 60-month sentence was compliant with the Guidelines in either case, but if the § 2A6.2 enhancement had not been applied, the district court could have imposed a 51-month sentence without departing from the Guidelines. 21 We need not decide, however, whether the facts of this case are such that we are compelled to determine the proper meaning of the Guidelines provision at issue. We think it prudent to address the question in order to provide some guidance to the district courts on an uncommon issue of Guidelines interpretation. We therefore assume arguendo that Robinson would be entitled to relief were we to find the district court to have been in error, reach the question of the applicability of § 2A6.2(b)(1)(D) in Robinson's case, and find that the district court committed no such error.
22 Robinson contests the application of USSG § 2A6.2(b)(1)(D) to raise his offense level from 18 to 20. 1 Section 2A6.2(a) provides a base offense level of 18 for a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2262. Section 2A6.2(b)(1)(D) then provides: If the offense involved . . . a pattern of activity involving stalking, threatening, harassing, or assaulting the same victim, increase [the offense level] by 2 levels. Robinson argues that the provision is inapplicable for two reasons. 23 First, Robinson contends that § 2A6.2(1)(D)(b) was inapplicable because the conduct that resulted in the conviction, which is to say, Robinson's journey to Maine with Rebecca, was not an act of stalking, threatening, harassment, or assault. Whether the offense was an act of stalking, threatening, harassment, or assault is not the question, however, but whether the act involved . . . a pattern of activity involving such acts. This language is hardly of crystal clarity, but we conclude that it encompasses the activity here. The challenge is to identify a pattern of activity that fits the guideline description, and to determine whether the offense involves that pattern. Robinson's persistent abuse of his wife, consisting of at least the two incidents of assault and the sending of multiple threatening letters, constitutes the proscribed pattern of activity. The offense involved that pattern, because it consisted of the violation of a protective order whose only purpose was to protect Rebecca from that abusive behavior. 24 Robinson also argues that the guideline is inapplicable because it contemplates a victim, and Robinson's wife cannot be considered a victim because, he alleges, she gave her consent to travel with him to Maine. The district court rightly concluded that this argument is frivolous. The guideline calls for an enhancement when the charged crime involved . . . a pattern of activity involving stalking, threatening, harassing, or assaulting the same victim. USSG § 2A6.2. As we have just noted, the pattern of activity in question consisted of two incidents in which Robinson assaulted his wife, and more than one instance in which he threatened her. The question is whether she was the victim of the activity which constituted the requisite pattern, and this she plainly was. The district court was correct to apply a two-level enhancement under USSG § 2A6.2(b)(1)(D).