Opinion ID: 202231
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Intent Enhancement.

Text: 19 The statute underlying the offenses of conviction criminalizes the knowing use of the mails to deliver a communication containing a threat to injure the addressee. 18 U.S.C. § 876. To obtain a conviction thereunder, showing that the perpetrator had an intention of seeing the threat through to fruition is not required. See United States v. Koski, 424 F.3d 812, 817 (8th Cir.2005). Rather, it is sufficient to show that (i) the accused intended to make the menacing statement and (ii) the intended recipient reasonably could have regarded it as a threat. United States v. Schneider, 910 F.2d 1569, 1570 (7th Cir. 1990). 20 Even though proof of a defendant's intent to carry out a threat is unnecessary for establishing guilt under the statute of conviction, the Sentencing Commission has made it relevant to an evaluation of the seriousness of the conduct involved in the offense (and, thus, to the determination of an appropriate sentence). See USSG § 2A6.1(b)(1) (calling for a six-level enhancement [i]f the offense involved any conduct evidencing an intent to accomplish such threat). Whether Dixon's conduct evinced an intent to carry out his threats implicates questions of both fact and law, and Dixon mounts challenges on both fronts. We afford clear-error review to his fact-bound challenges, see United States v. Jimenez-Otero, 898 F.2d 813, 814 (1st Cir.1990), but consider the essentially legal question of whether the facts sufficiently establish the requisite intent de novo, see United States v. Carrasco-Mateo, 389 F.3d 239, 243 (1st Cir.2004). 21 1. The Factual Challenges. As a factual matter, Dixon asserts that the lower court clearly erred in drawing an inference that he believed he could transmit HIV and hepatitis by smearing his bodily substances on correspondence and, thus, in determining that he intended to harm the addressees. In drawing the disputed inference, the court relied principally on the following evidence: (i) the letters were smeared with Dixon's blood and feces; (ii) they expressed his desire to infect the intended recipients; and (iii) Dixon was HIV-positive and had been diagnosed with hepatitis B and C. 22 Nothwithstanding this evidentiary array, Dixon argues that the court's inference is clearly erroneous. He notes that the court never determined that it would be possible to transmit the viruses by mailing letters permeated with bodily substances. Without such proof, he avers, the remaining evidence is too flimsy to ground the court's finding. This argument lacks force. 23 To be sure, a district court charged with determining whether a defendant believed it to be possible to effectuate a threat is free to consider the apparent impossibility of using a given means to achieve a given end. See, e.g., State v. Block, 333 Mo. 127, 62 S.W.2d 428, 430 (1933) (holding that a defendant could not intend to commit a crime if the means employed are so clearly unsuitable that it is obvious that the crime cannot be committed). Withal, objective impossibility does not necessarily preclude subjective belief. See United States v. Joiner, 418 F.3d 863, 867 (8th Cir.2005) (finding that defendants had the necessary scienter even though they incorrectly believed they could use U.C.C. financing statements to create a fraudulent lien on real estate). Although there may be cases in which factual impossibility is so nose-on-the-face plain as to negate any finding of subjective belief (say, for example, that the question was whether the defendant believed she could kill a person by hitting him over the head with a strand of spaghetti), this is not such a case. Even if we assume, for argument's sake, that it is impossible to transmit HIV and/or hepatitis by smearing bodily substances excreted by an infected person on a letter — and there is not a shred of proof to that effect in the record — that assumed fact is far from obvious. Indeed, at least one of the individuals who handled the threatening letters subsequently underwent extensive testing precisely because of his fear that infection might be possible. 24 Dixon also attacks, as against the weight of the evidence, the district court's conclusion that his admissions to the investigators provided additional support for an intent enhancement. Emphasizing Dixon's desire to remain behind bars, the absence of any proof that his diseases were communicable via the tainted letters, and Dr. Bresler's testimony, Dixon seems to be saying that the district court clearly erred in attaching any weight to his admissions to the investigators. 25 Clear-error review is deferential. Under that standard, we must accept the lower court's findings of fact unless, after perusing the record as a whole, we are left with a strong and abiding conviction that a mistake has been made. See United States v. U.S. Gypsum Co., 333 U.S. 364, 395, 68 S.Ct. 525, 92 L.Ed. 746 (1948). The record here does not encourage such a conviction; the evidence is conflicting, and the resolution of these conflicts depends on which set of inferences the trier finds persuasive. Where, as here, the sentencing record supports two or more competing inferences, the sentencing court's choice among them cannot be clearly erroneous. See United States v. Ruiz, 905 F.2d 499, 507 (1st Cir.1990). 26 Viewed in this light, Dixon's fact-bound challenges collapse. We hold, without serious question, that the sentencing court did not clearly err in finding that Dixon actually believed that he could transmit his diseases by smearing his bodily substances on the letters. Nor did the court clearly err in attaching weight to the admission that he meant to injure the intended recipients of his unsanitary epistles. 27 2. The Legal Challenge. Dixon next asseverates that the government's failure to offer proof that it would have been possible for him to transmit his diseases by mail precluded the district court, as a matter of law, from applying the intent enhancement. This is a legal rather than a factual argument, suggesting that the facts as found by the sentencing court simply do not justify imposition of the enhancement. Consequently, the argument engenders de novo review. See, e.g., United States v. Newell, 309 F.3d 396, 400 (6th Cir.2002); United States v. Taylor, 88 F.3d 938, 942 (11th Cir.1996). 28 Although the district court looked to the totality of the circumstances in reaching its decision to invoke the intent enhancement, Dixon correctly points out that the record contains no evidence that it would be possible to transmit HIV and hepatitis viruses by smearing bodily substances on correspondence. Building on this foundation, he maintains that his beliefs and intentions with respect to his smearing of the letters provide no support for an intent enhancement and that the remaining facts are insufficient as a matter of law to sustain the enhancement. 29 This claim of error boils down to the thesis that factual impossibility is a legal defense to the imposition of the intent enhancement. We reject that thesis. 30 Factual impossibility occurs when a circumstance unknown to the defendant prevents him from achieving a specific objective. 2 See United States v. Waldron, 590 F.2d 33, 35 (1st Cir.1979). On Dixon's thesis, the proscribed objective is injuring the intended recipients and the unknown circumstance is the impossibility of transmitting his diseases by bodily substances smeared on correspondence. We proceed to examine the premise on which this thesis rests. 31 Recognizing that conduct falling short of a completed criminal objective still may pose a real threat to social order, we long have held that factual impossibility is not a defense to either liability or sentencing enhancements for inchoate offenses such as conspiracy or attempt. See, e.g., United States v. Belardo-Quiñones, 71 F.3d 941, 944 (1st Cir.1995); United States v. Chapdelaine, 989 F.2d 28, 35 (1st Cir. 1993); United States v. Giry, 818 F.2d 120, 126 (1st Cir.1987); Waldron, 590 F.2d at 34-35. Since the elements of those offenses do not require that the unlawful goal be achieved, factual impossibility is irrelevant. See Belardo-Quiñones, 71 F.3d at 944. It is against this legal miseen-scêne that we turn to the sentencing guidelines in order to determine the relevant elements of the intent enhancement. 32 A court charged with the interpretation of a sentencing guideline should look first to the plain language of the guideline and, unless the Sentencing Commission has clearly indicated an intention to give a certain term a special or guideline-specific meaning, should apply that language as written, assigning commonly used words their ordinary meaning. See United States v. Thompson, 32 F.3d 1, 5 (1st Cir.1994); United States v. Brewster, 1 F.3d 51, 54 (1st Cir.1993). In this instance, section 2A6.1(b)(1) states that the six-level enhancement should be imposed [i]f the offense involved any conduct evidencing an intent to carry out such threat. Given its ordinary meaning, this plain language denotes that the application of the enhancement turns on a defendant's subjective intent, without regard to factual impossibility. 33 In an effort to contradict this plain meaning, Dixon argues that the commentary to section 2A6.1 gives the word intent a special meaning, adding an element of likely success. Read in context, the commentary to which Dixon adverts furnishes no support for this optimistic argument. 34 Section 2A6.1 supplies sentencing guidelines for a host of crimes involving various forms of threatening or harassing communications. One common denominator of these offenses is that, typically, they criminalize conduct regardless of whether the putative defendant was merely trying to scare (rather than actually harm) the intended recipient. See, e.g., Koski, 424 F.3d at 817 (holding intent to carry out credible threat irrelevant to determination of guilt under 18 U.S.C. § 876); United States v. Stewart, 411 F.3d 825, 828 (7th Cir.2005) (similar); see also United States v. Lincoln, 462 F.2d 1368, 1369 (6th Cir. 1972) (holding that, under the similarly structured threatening the president statute — 18 U.S.C. § 871 — it is not necessary that the threat be uttered with a willful intent to carry it out). Therefore, proof that the defendant either desired to inflict physical harm or took any steps in that direction is not essential to a conviction. See, e.g., Koski, 424 F.3d at 817. 35 Recognizing that this group of statutes spans a wide range of conduct, the Sentencing Commission compiled a number of specific offense characteristics to grade the seriousness of a defendant's conduct. These specific offense characteristics are meant to distinguish conduct based upon the defendant's intent and the likelihood that the defendant would carry out the threat. USSG § 2A6.1, comment. (backg'd.). It is this statement, Dixon suggests, that renders the specific offense characteristic at issue here — the intent enhancement — inapplicable where, due to factual impossibility, the threat cannot materialize. 36 This reading of the Sentencing Commission's background commentary elevates hope over reason. The statement to which Dixon alludes is not specific to the intent enhancement but, rather, addresses the entire litany of specific offense characteristics listed under section 2A6.1. That enumeration includes an array of different factors. See, e.g., id. § 2A6.1(b)(2) (dealing with the number of threats made); id. § 2A6.1(b)(5) (dealing with the extent of the premeditation that went into making a particular threat). Consequently, the most natural interpretation of the commentary is one that respects the plain language of the intent enhancement: the Commission formulated section 2A6.1(b)(1) to distinguish conduct based solely on a defendant's subjective intent. It then proceeded to design the remaining specific offense characteristics to distinguish conduct based on the likelihood that the defendant would succeed in carrying out his threat. 37 To sum up, this is not a situation in which the Sentencing Commission, in framing an enhancement, clearly aspired to employ a special or guideline-specific definition. Thus, we are duty-bound to read the intent enhancement as written, in accordance with its plain meaning. See Thompson, 32 F.3d at 5; Brewster, 1 F.3d at 54. Reading the guideline in that manner, a sentencing court must find that a defendant subjectively intended to carry out a threat before imposing the additional six levels. It follows inexorably that factual impossibility is no defense to the deployment of that enhancement and, therefore, that the district court did not commit legal error in applying the enhancement here. 3