Opinion ID: 614326
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Departure Motion

Text: Next, Friedman challenges his sentence by asserting that the District Court did not formally rule on his motion for a downward departure for coercion, blackmail, or duress. Under Gunter, a district court must formally rule on the motions of both parties and state on the record whether [it is] granting a departure and how that departure affects the Guidelines calculation. 462 F.3d at 247. This Court has emphasized the importance of ruling on departure motions: [W]e require that the entirety of the Guidelines calculation be done correctly, including rulings on Guidelines departures. Put another way, district courts must still calculate what the proper Guidelines sentencing range is, otherwise the Guidelines cannot be considered properly at Gunter's third step. The scenario is simple: error entering this sentencing step may presage the sentence ultimately set. Lofink, 564 F.3d at 238-39 (citation omitted). In Rita, the Supreme Court held that the district court sufficiently rejected the defendant's request for a downward departure when it simply stated that without downward departure, the Guidelines range was not inappropriate and the sentence was appropriate. 551 U.S. at 358, 127 S.Ct. 2456. The Supreme Court recognized that the judge could have explained more regarding why it rejected the defendant's downward departure motion, but noted that the context and the record make clear that this, or similar, reasoning underlies the judge's conclusion. Id. at 359, 127 S.Ct. 2456. In this case, the District Court clearly rejected Friedman's downward departure motion. The District Court explained that it was convinced based on the testimony at the trial that Friedman had no moral objection to the bribe and that Friedman was not the victim of extortion, but instead was motivated to pay the bribe in order to sell the building quickly and to avoid proper procedures to legalize the sixteenth unit. (App. at 959.) The District Court did not commit procedural error in its resolution of the departure motion.