Opinion ID: 180848
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Whether the District Court Violated the Ex Post Facto Clause of Article I of the United States Constitution When it Upwardly Departed Five Levels

Text: The criminal conduct underlying Larkin's indictment occurred on September 15, 2003. Under the version of U.S.S.G. § 2G2.1 (2002) in effect on the date of Larkin's criminal conduct, her base offense level totaled twenty seven (27). Effective November 1, 2004, the United States Sentencing Commission amended U.S.S.G. § 2G2.1, the sentencing guideline that governs Larkin's conduct, to include several bases for enhancements. [13] Direct application of the amended version of U.S.S.G. § 2G2.1 (2009) results in a base offense level of thirty two (32). Larkin was sentenced on May 22, 2009. [14] Larkin claims that the District Court improperly relied upon the 2009 edition of the Guideline Manual in rendering its decision to depart upward five levels pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 5K2.0 in violation of the ex post facto clause of Article I of the United States Constitution. [15] We review this decision under a de novo standard. Where an amendment to a section of the sentencing guidelines occurs following the convicted offense conduct and the amendment results in harsher penalties than were in effect at the time of the conduct, the ex post facto clause and U.S.S.G. § 1B1.11(a) (1993) both require the District Court to apply the sentencing guidelines in effect on the date that the offense of conviction was committed. Miller v. Florida, 482 U.S. 423, 431-35, 107 S.Ct. 2446, 2451-54, 96 L.Ed.2d 351 (1987). Because subsequent changes in the sentencing guidelines in effect at the time of Larkin's sentence would result in the imposition of a harsher punishment, the District Court was required to sentence Larkin according to the 2002 Guideline Manual, which was in effect on the date of the charged offense conduct on September 13, 2003. [16] United States v. Menon, 24 F.3d 550, 566 (3d Cir.1994); see also U.S.S.G. § 1B1.11(b)(1). The District Court appropriately considered Larkin's conduct under the 2002 edition of the Guideline Manual and concluded that an upward departure was warranted pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 5K2.0 on the ground that U.S.S.G. § 2G2.1 (2002) did not adequately consider the severity of Larkin's conduct. Specifically, the applicable guideline did not account for the fact that: 1) Larkin permitted pedophiles to have sexual contact with M.M.; 2) Larkin distributed materials involving the exploitation of a minor; 3) Larkin distributed these materials for pecuniary gain; and 4) Larkin's conduct was extreme. In justifying the imposed sentencing enhancements, the District Court relied upon, inter alia, the fact that the amended version of U.S.S.G. § 2G2.1 (2009) specifically contemplated enhancements for the identified conduct. [17] We have consistently held as improper the direct application of an amended guideline to conduct that occurred prior to the amendment. See, e.g., United States v. Wood, 486 F.3d 781 (3d Cir.2007). Analogizing to an amended guideline, however, does not offend the ex post facto clause. We agree with the Seventh Circuit that a sentencing court may interpret the Commission's later addition of an aggravating element as a sentencing factor as evidence that a previous version of the Guidelines did not adequately consider that factor in the sentencing scheme while cautioning that subsequent amendments are only to be used as tools in making a well-reasoned, individualized determination of whether to impose an upward departure in a particular case or to determine the degree of departure that is warranted. See United States v. Coe, 220 F.3d 573, 578 (7th Cir.2000). We can find no better evidence of the inadequacy of a sentencing guideline than a subsequent amendment to that guideline to include and qualify previously unmentioned components of the convicted offense. For this reason, we recently joined the First, Fourth, and Seventh Circuits in holding that reliance on Congress's decision to amend a guideline provision as evidence that the applicable guideline is inadequate, is proper. United States v. King, 604 F.3d 125, 142 (3d Cir. 2010). We are convinced, after a review of the record, that the District Court's sentence of Larkin did not improperly rely on an amended version of § 2G2.1. See United States v. Kikumura, 918 F.2d 1084, 1113 (3d Cir.1990) overruled on other grounds by United States v. Fisher, 502 F.3d 293 (3d Cir.2007) (analogies to other guidelines is permissible). The District Court's analogy to the amendment to § 2G2.1 was proper and did not violate the letter or the spirit of the ex post facto clause. King, 604 F.3d at 142. [18]