Opinion ID: 36002
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Use of force as an element

Text: We begin by observing that Sarmiento-Funes is correct that the Missouri sexual assault statute does not require force in the same sense as does a traditional forcible rape statute. That is, the sexual assault statute does not require that physical violence, coercion, or threats accompany the sex act. Instead, the sexual assault statute makes it an offense for a person to “ha[ve] sexual intercourse with another person knowing that he does so without that person’s consent.” MO. ANN. STAT. § 566.040(1). The crime is a Class C felony that carries a statutory maximum of seven years, including both imprisonment and conditional release. Id. §§ 558.011(1), 566.040(2). As noted above, a different Missouri statute outlaws rape that is accomplished with “the use of forcible compulsion.” Id. § 566.030(1).2 The statutory maximum sentence for forcible rape under Missouri law is life imprisonment. Id. § 566.030(2). Of course, that Missouri has a forcible rape statute that evidently describes a “crime of violence” does not necessarily mean that Missouri’s relatively less aggravated sexual assault statute therefore lacks the use of force as an element. The district court did not find the existence of the two different statutes 2 Forcible compulsion is defined as “[p]hysical force that overcomes reasonable resistance; or . . . [a] threat, express or implied, that places a person in reasonable fear of death, serious physical injury or kidnapping of such person or another person . . . .” MO. ANN. STAT. § 556.061(12) (West 1999). 4 determinative, and the government agrees with the district court’s conclusion that the sexual assault offense involves the “use of force” for purposes of the Guidelines regardless of whether the offense involves overt physical violence, forcible compulsion, or threats. The Missouri sexual assault statute requires that the perpetrator engage in sexual intercourse, which means “any penetration, however slight.” Id. § 566.010(4). The government has at points suggested that the statute involves the use of force merely by virtue of the force inherent in the act of penetration. Its principal support for this contention is United States v. Yanez-Saucedo, 295 F.3d 991 (9th Cir. 2002). That case did not involve the “crime of violence” definition at issue here but instead considered whether a certain Washington sex offense counted as “rape” within the meaning of 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(A). The Ninth Circuit held that the term “rape” did not require any force beyond that inherent in the act of penetration. Id. at 996.3 The court therefore held that 3 In this appeal we are not interpreting the meaning of the term “rape” as it is used in 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(43)(A), and so Yanez-Saucedo is not directly on point. The meaning of “rape” might be highly relevant on remand, however: Under § 2L1.2(b)(1)(C), Sarmiento-Funes would be eligible for an eightlevel sentence enhancement if his prior offense constituted the “aggravated felony” of “rape” within the meaning of § 1101(a)(43)(A), the same provision at issue in Yanez-Saucedo. A holding that the sixteen-level “use of force” enhancement was improper does not mean that the eight-level “rape” enhancement is unavailable. See infra note 13. 5 although the state statute did not require forcible compulsion, the defendant’s prior offense could still be considered rape because of the force inherent in penetration. Id. at 995-96.4 It is true that the very act of penetration (like less serious and intimate forms of bodily contact) involves “force” in a physics or engineering sense. See Flores v. Ashcroft, 350 F.3d 666, 672 (7th Cir. 2003) (noting that practically every crime involves “force” in this sense). Nonetheless, it is not open to us to hold that the force of penetration per se amounts to the “use of force” to which the Sentencing Guidelines refer. Indeed, a recent decision of this court rejects that precise proposition. See United States v. Houston, 364 F.3d 243, 246 (5th Cir. 2004) (holding that a certain sex crime did not involve the “use of force” despite the fact that the defendant was charged with 4 The government reads a certain Missouri case, State v. Niederstadt, 66 S.W.3d 12, 15 (Mo. 2002), as demonstrating that the Missouri courts recognize that penetration is itself a type of force. The defendant, for his part, cites a different Missouri case, State v. Dighera, 617 S.W.2d 524, 533 n.8 (Mo. Ct. App. 1981), that distinguishes between rape and sexual assault and implies that Missouri law does not consider sexual assault “forceful.” Although we look to state law for the elements of an offense, state law does not govern the crucial question here: whether the Missouri sexual assault crime inherently involves the use of force. That question depends on the meaning of the phrase “use of physical force” in the Sentencing Guidelines, a question of federal law that does not turn on Missouri’s particular view of whether penetration inherently involves force. See United States v. Shannon, 110 F.3d 382, 385, 386 (7th Cir. 1997) (en banc); United States v. Vasquez-Balandran, 76 F.3d 648, 649-50 (5th Cir. 1996); cf. Taylor, 495 U.S. at 590-92 (explaining that the term “burglary” as it is used in a sentence-enhancement statute has a uniform, nationwide meaning, regardless of how individual states label offenses). 6 “caus[ing] his sex organ to contact and penetrate the female sex organ of [the victim]”);5 accord United States v. Meader, 118 F.3d 876, 881-82 (1st Cir. 1997); Shannon, 110 F.3d at 384-85 (both holding that statutory rape offenses did not involve the use of force under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2); cf. United States v. Velazquez-Overa, 100 F.3d 418, 420 (5th Cir. 1996) (stating that “physical force is not an element of the crime” of sexual contact with a child). Therefore, we cannot conclude that the act of penetration itself is enough to supply the force required under § 2L1.2 cmt. n.1(B)(ii)(I). Of course, the Missouri statute does not criminalize mere penetration, but instead outlaws penetration that the perpetrator knows is without the consent of the victim, a crucial consideration. The government argues that if penetration does not itself entail the use of force, then it becomes forceful when it occurs without consent (even though the bodily contact itself is the same in either case). Here again we find that our recent Houston decision provides substantial guidance. Houston held that statutory rape, TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 22.011(a)(2) (Vernon 2003), does not have as an element the use of physical force against the person of another. 364 F.3d at 246. Significantly for present purposes, the Houston panel reasoned that the 5 Houston was interpreting U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a)(1), a Guidelines provision that employs “use of force” language identical to that employed in U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2 cmt. n.1(B)(ii)(I). 7 statutory rape offense does not involve the use of force because the statute proscribes “consensual” sexual conduct. Id. Consensual sex, according to Houston, does not involve the use of force, even though the sex happens to be illegal. Houston’s holding that consensual sex does not involve the use of force does not compel the proposition that nonconsensual intercourse does involve the use of force, but such a result would not be inconsistent with Houston’s reasoning. In applying Houston to the case at hand, we observe that Houston’s statement that statutory rape is consensual is in one sense counter-intuitive, for it is often said that statutory rape is considered rape precisely because the minor victim of the crime is, as a matter of law, deemed incapable of giving consent. See Turner v. State, 246 S.W.2d 642, 643 (Tex. Crim. App. 1952); Duby v. State, 735 S.W.2d 555, 557 (Tex. App.–Texarkana 1987, pet. ref’d) (“A person under the age of seventeen is legally incapable of giving consent to intercourse.”); see also 3 CHARLES E. TORCIA, WHARTON’S CRIMINAL LAW § 285, at 68-69 (15th ed. 1995) (citing cases from various jurisdictions). But cf. Garcia v. State, 661 S.W.2d 96, 99 (Tex. Crim. App. 1983) (McCormick, J., concurring) (“Children under seventeen are not presumed by the law to be incapable of consent, their consent is simply irrelevant.”). What Houston’s statements regarding consent must be taken to mean is that the sex at issue in statutory rape may be consensual as a matter of fact, even if the law disregards or 8 countermands the victim’s decision. The rule that emerges from Houston, therefore, is that intercourse does not involve the use of force when it is accompanied by consent-in-fact. Although the Missouri sexual assault statute speaks of intercourse “without consent,” the state statutes explicitly distinguish between “assent” and “consent,” providing that “assent” sometimes does not count as “consent.”6 The Missouri sexual assault statute therefore reaches intercourse to which the victim assents, though that assent is a legal nullity, such as when it is the product of deception or a judgment impaired by intoxication. But under the rule of Houston, described above, illegal intercourse with consent-in-fact, i.e. assent, does not 6 Section 556.061(5) of the Missouri Code provides: [C]onsent or lack of consent may be expressed or implied. Assent does not constitute consent if: (a) It is given by a person who lacks the mental capacity to authorize the conduct charged to constitute the offense and such mental incapacity is manifest or known to the actor; or (b) It is given by a person who by reason of youth, mental disease or defect, or intoxication, is manifestly unable or known by the actor to be unable to make a reasonable judgment as to the nature or harmfulness of the conduct charged to constitute the offense; or (c) It is induced by force, duress or deception[.] This list of situations in which assent does not equal consent does not include the scenario in which the perpetrator incapacitates the victim, such as by drugging the victim without her knowledge. Such conduct would fall under Missouri’s forcible rape statute. See MO. ANN. STAT. § 566.030(1). 9 involve the use of force.7 Since some (though not all) methods of violating the Missouri statute do not require the use of physical force against the victim, the statute therefore does not have, as an element, the use of physical force against the person of another. See United States v. Vargas-Duran, 356 F.3d 598, 605 (5th Cir. 2004) (en banc).8 Our conclusion finds support in the Sixth Circuit’s decision in United States v. Arnold, 58 F.3d 1117 (6th Cir. 1995). There, the question was whether a Tennessee conviction for assault with intent to commit sexual battery involved the “use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force” under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2. The court observed that sexual battery could, according to Tennessee law, be accomplished in a number of disparate ways, namely 7 The dissent argues that the Missouri offense involves the use of force because the victim is unable to give consent-infact. We respectfully disagree, inasmuch as § 556.061(5) explicitly contemplates that the victim can manifest “assent,” i.e. consent-in-fact, without that manifestation qualifying as legal consent. Moreover, we do not find persuasive the dissent’s approach to intercourse induced by deception, which the statute also explicitly contemplates. The victim of deception manifests consent-in-fact, though it is legally vitiated. We do not believe that, under Houston, penetration that occurs under such a circumstance involves the use of physical force against the victim. 8 Since our decision relies on Houston’s distinction between consent-in-fact and consent-in-law, we leave open the question whether intercourse not accompanied by extrinsic force or threats could nonetheless be said to involve the “use of force” for Guidelines purposes when there is no factual assent to the sex act. That is, it is possible that there could be a “use of force” for Guidelines purposes even when there is no “force” as that term is normally understood in connection with forcible rape laws. 10 through: (1) the use of force or coercion, (2) the mental deficiency or physical incapacity of the victim, or (3) fraud. Id. at 1121-22. The court concluded that while the “use of force” for Guidelines purposes was involved in some methods of violating the statute, force was not required in all cases; in particular, the court pointed to fraud as a manner of violating the statute that “would not involve an element of force or attempted or threatened force.” Id. at 1122; see also 2 WAYNE R. LAFAVE, SUBSTANTIVE CRIMINAL LAW § 17.1(a), at 605 (2d ed. 2003) (referring to fraud as an “alternative[]” to force in the rape context). Deception is likewise one of the methods of committing sexual assault under Missouri law, see MO. ANN. STAT. § 556.061(5)(c), and we agree that a sex offense accomplished in this manner does not involve the “use of force” within the meaning of the applicable Sentencing Guidelines. In its final argument that the Missouri offense requires the use of force, the government contends that unconsented-to sex is itself a form of bodily injury. While we are sympathetic to the sentiment the government is expressing, we cannot adopt this view of the meaning of bodily injury. To begin with, as we observed earlier, the Missouri offense reaches some assented-to sex.9 The 9 This factor distinguishes the present case from United States v. Brown, the Seventh Circuit case on which the government relies in arguing that the Missouri statute involves physical injury. Brown held that “forced nonconsensual sex with strangers is ‘conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another’” under the Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 11 offense is certainly a gross and outrageous affront to the victim in any case. But to say that the Missouri statute per se involves bodily injury, while a way of amplifying one’s condemnation of the crime, reaches beyond the normal understanding of the term “bodily injury.” This court has previously considered the Texas crime of sexual contact with a child--an offense that likely affects the victim as seriously as does the crime at issue here--and yet we have said that that sexual contact does not amount to the use of physical force. See Velazquez-Overa, 100 F.3d at 420. Some sex offenses do include an element of bodily injury (as that term is normally understood), e.g., LA. REV. STAT. ANN. § 14:43.2 (West 1997) (aggravated sexual battery); TEX. PENAL CODE ANN. § 22.021(a)(2)(A)(i) (Vernon 2003) (aggravated sexual assault), but this Missouri statute does not.