Opinion ID: 150723
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Emmanuel's Conduct After the Fall of the Taylor Regime

Text: In 2003, Liberia's civil war ended. President Taylor resigned, left the country, and was ultimately extradited to the Hague, where he is currently on trial for crimes against humanity in the Special Court for Sierra Leone. Emmanuel left Liberia in July 2003. Between 2004 and 2005, he called the United States Defense Attaché in Liberia from Trinidad several times, seeking information about the United Nations travel ban on certain persons, inquiring about joining the United States Marines, and claiming that he was an American who could go home whenever he wanted. On March 30, 2006, when Emmanuel arrived at Miami International Airport on a flight from Trinidad, officials executed a warrant for his arrest for attempting to enter the United States using a false passport. Emmanuel's luggage contained a book on guerilla tactics and a notebook with rap lyrics, some making reference to the ATU. During his arrest, Emmanuel knowingly waived his rights and made the following statements: first, that his father was Charles Taylor, even though he had listed Daniel Smith as his father on a recent U.S. passport application; second, that the ATU was his pet project prior to 2000 and that he was considered its commander; and third, that he was present when a press guy was arrested by the generalYeatenand was beaten and burned with an iron. In November 2007, a grand jury sitting in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida returned an eight-count superseding indictment against Emmanuel. Count One charged him with a conspiracy to commit torture in Liberia against seven unnamed victimswith death resulting to at least one victimby seizing, imprisoning, interrogating, and mistreating them, and by committing various acts with the specific intent to inflict severe physical pain and suffering, all in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2340A(c). Count Two charged Emmanuel with a conspiracy to use and carry a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(o). Counts Three through Seven charged him with committing substantive crimes of torture against five named victims, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2340A(a). Count Eight charged Emmanuel with using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A). Emmanuel moved to dismiss the indictment, claiming, among other things, that the Torture Act is unconstitutional. The district court denied that motion, concluding that the Torture Act was a proper exercise of Congress's power under the Necessary and Proper Clause of Article I, as an adjunct to the Executive's authority under Article II to enter into treaties. Order denying motion to dismiss indictment, at 10, United States v. Emmanuel, No. 06-20758 (S.D.Fla. July 5, 2007). The district court specifically rejected Emmanuel's argument that the Torture Act was unconstitutional because its language did not precisely mirror the definition of torture contained in the CAT; the court explained that Congress needed flexibility in performing its delegated responsibilities, and concluded that the Torture Act plainly bears a rational relationship to the CAT. Id. at . The district court also determined that Congress had the power to apply the Torture Act extraterritorially, and had clearly expressed its intent to do so. Id. at -13. Finally, the district court concluded that 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) also applied to Emmanuel's extraterritorial conduct because Emmanuel had committed a crime of violence that could be prosecuted in the United States, which is all the statute, on its face, requires. Id. at -14. After a one-month trial, the jury convicted Emmanuel on all seven counts of the superseding indictment. A presentence investigation report (PSI) was then prepared for Emmanuel under the 2002 Sentencing Guidelines manual. First, because Emmanuel had witnessed various acts of torture, had ordered others to commit torture, and had engaged in torturous acts that were part of a campaign to quell opposition to his father's presidency, he was assessed a four-level aggravating role adjustment for being a leader pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1(a). Second, because Emmanuel was convicted of more than one offense, the PSI applied the multiple count aggregation rules contained in U.S.S.G. § 3D1.2. The PSI established an offense group for each of the ten victims relating to the conspiracy-to-commit-torture count (Count One), and, where applicable, grouped the substantive counts (Counts Three through Seven) with Count One under U.S.S.G. §§ 1B1.2(d) and 3D1.2(b). Specifically, the PSI identified seven victims that Emmanuel tortured (Jusu, Turay, Conteh, Cole, Kpadeh, Dulleh, and Kamara) and three victims that he shot and killed (Williams and two unnamed individuals at the St. Paul River Bridge Checkpoint). Pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 3D1.2(c), the PSI treated the conspiracy conviction under the firearm statute (Count Two) as a specific offense characteristic, or adjustment, for the individual groups to which it pertained. Count Eight, the substantive offense of using and carrying a firearm during a crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c), was not included in the grouping because it carries a mandatory consecutive sentence. The Sentencing Guidelines provide that multiple substantive guidelines may apply to convictions under the Torture Act. U.S.S.G. app. A. The PSI applied U.S.S.G. § 2A4.1, the provision relating to kidnapping, abduction, and other unlawful restraints, to the ten offense groups, yielding a base offense level of 24. Moreover, because Emmanuel killed three victims under circumstances constituting murder, the district court applied to those three offense groups § 2A4.1(c)(1)'s cross-reference to § 2A1.1, the guideline applicable to murder. This calculation yielded a base offense level of 43, which was then subjected to a four-level aggravating role increase under § 3B1.1(a) and a multi-count adjustment under § 3D1.4. Emmanuel's final combined, adjusted offense level was 51. Emmanuel objected to the PSI. In particular, he argued that the application of the § 2A4.1 kidnapping guideline and the § 2A1.1 murder cross-reference was unconstitutional and improper, because he had not been charged with or convicted of either kidnapping or murder, and because none of the murders resulted from the alleged torture. Emmanuel also argued that the district court could not constitutionally sentence him for anything other than torture, because the CAT did not specifically prohibit murder or kidnapping. Emmanuel suggested, instead, that the aggravated assault guideline, § 2A2.2, better represented his convicted conduct. Emmanuel also objected to the PSI's use of ten offense groups, arguing that Williams, Cole, and the two unnamed individuals did not merit their own offense groups because there was insufficient evidence at trial that Emmanuel had killed them. The district court concluded that the kidnapping guideline, U.S.S.G. § 2A4.1, was the most appropriate of the potentially applicable guidelines, because the offenses against all of the victims contained one or more elements of unlawful restraint, abduction, or kidnapping. The district court observed that, whether or not the victims' initial detention was lawful, their continued detention plainly was not. Next, in addressing Emmanuel's objection to the application of § 2A4.1's cross-reference to § 2A1.1, the district court determined that this cross-reference did not require that the victim's death have resulted from any torture. It found that the § 2A4.1 cross-reference applied because the evidence showed that more than one victim was killed in circumstances that constituted murder. Consequently, the district court found that the base offense level was 43, and that a four-level aggravating role enhancement applied pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1(a). Inasmuch as an offense level of 43 is the highest level contained in the sentencing guidelines, and corresponds to life imprisonment, the district court ultimately set Emmanuel's offense level at 43. After hearing from the parties regarding the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors, the court imposed a total sentence of 1,164 months, or 97 years, of imprisonment. The total term consisted of 240 months each for Counts One and Two, 120 months each for Counts Three through Seven, and 84 months for Count Eight, all running consecutively. The district court entered judgment on January 1, 2009, and Emmanuel timely appealed.