Opinion ID: 738505
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introduction

Text: 60 Section 5K2.0, Grounds for Departure, provides a roadmap for a decision to depart from the applicable Guideline range. In the usual case, a sentencing court must impose a sentence within the Guideline range. See 18 U.S.C. § 3553(b). For the most part, a court can treat each guideline as carving out a 'heartland,' a set of typical cases embodying the conduct that each guideline describes. See 1994 U.S.S.G. ch. 1, pt. A, intro. comment. 4(b). However, the Sentencing Commission recognizes that it is difficult to prescribe a single set of guidelines that encompasses the vast range of human conduct potentially relevant to a sentencing decision. Id. Therefore, a court may depart from the range if it finds that there exists an aggravating or mitigating circumstance of a kind, or to a degree, not adequately taken into consideration ... in formulating the guidelines. 18 U.S.C. § 3553(b); see 1995 U.S.S.G. § 5K2.0. It is only in the unusual case, one outside the heartland, in which a departure is authorized. See Koon, --- U.S. at ----, 116 S.Ct. at 2044. Except for a limited number of prohibited factors, the Guidelines do not limit the kinds of factors, whether or not mentioned anywhere else in the guidelines, that could constitute grounds for departure in an unusual case. 1995 U.S.S.G. ch. 1, pt. A, intro. comment. 4(b). 16 61 Sentencing courts are not left adrift, however. Koon, --- U.S. at ----, 116 S.Ct. at 2045. The Guidelines list factors that are encouraged as bases for departure and those that are discouraged. Section 5K2.0 introduces the subject. As § 5K2.0 explains, the Commission seeks to aid the [sentencing] court by identifying some of the factors that [it] has not been able to take into account fully in formulating the guidelines. 1995 U.S.S.G. § 5K2.0. Those factors are included in §§ 5K2.1-5K2.18, and cover issues such as the death or injury of a victim, the harm to property or government interests, the purpose or cause of the offense, the particular conduct of the defendant, and the like. In Chapter 5, Part H, the Guidelines list a number of discouraged factors. These are factors [that] are not ordinarily relevant to the determination of whether a sentence should be outside the applicable guideline range. 1995 U.S.S.G. ch. 5, pt. H, intro. comment. They include, but are not limited to, a defendant's age (§ 5H1.1), education or vocational skills (§ 5H1.2), or employment history (§ 5H1.5). 62 In Koon, the Supreme Court explained how a sentencing court is to factor prohibited, encouraged, and discouraged factors into the sentencing decision. If the unusual or special factors presented by a case are prohibited factors, a court may not depart on that basis alone. See Koon, --- U.S. at ----, 116 S.Ct. at 2045. If the unusual or special factors are encouraged factors, a court is merely authorized to depart. See id. A departure employing encouraged factors is commonly referred to as a guided departure. If the unusual or special factors are discouraged, or if they are encouraged factors that have been taken into account by the relevant guideline, then a court may depart only if the factor[§ are] present to an exceptional degree or in some other way make[ ] the case different from the ordinary case where the factor[§ are] present. Id. Finally, a sentencing court may depart even if the unusual or special factors have not been mentioned in the Guidelines, but only in rare circumstances. See id. Such a departure would be unguided. 63