Opinion ID: 575288
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Downward Departure from Sentencing Guidelines

Text: 32 Mejia urges that he should be granted a downward departure from the Sentencing Guidelines because his relative lack of culpability in comparison with Rodriguez-Zapata is a mitigating circumstance not adequately taken into consideration by the Sentencing Commission. See 18 U.S.C. § 3553(b). 33 Ninth Circuit law is consistent with the proposition that avoiding the unequal treatment of codefendants is not an acceptable basis for an upward departure from the Guidelines. In United States v. Enriquez-Munoz, 906 F.2d 1356 (9th Cir.1990), this court held that sentencing disparity among codefendants could not serve as a basis for upward departure. In United States v. Carpenter, 914 F.2d 1131 (9th Cir.1990), the court affirmed an upward departure that created a sentencing disparity, noting that although a disparity could not serve as the basis for upward departure, by the same token nothing precluded an upward departure resulting in a disparity if the upward departure had other justification and was otherwise reasonable. Id. at 1135-36; see also United States v. Hoy, 932 F.2d 1343, 1345 (9th Cir.1991) (Carpenter stands for the proposition that sentencing disparity among codefendants is not, by itself, sufficient ground for attacking an otherwise proper sentence under the Guidelines). 34 This court has specifically reserved the question whether a district court may depart downward for the purpose of avoiding unequal treatment of codefendants. Enriquez-Munoz, 906 F.2d 1360 n. 8. 2 We now answer that question in the negative. Basic notions of fairness dictate that defendants should be sentenced in proportion to their crimes. The Sentencing Guidelines attempt to ensure that all defendants receive like sentences for like crimes. A downward departure to correct sentencing disparity brings a defendant's sentence more into line with his or her codefendant's sentence, but places it out of line with sentences imposed on all similar offenders in other cases. See Enriquez-Munoz, 906 F.2d at 1359-60. The greater uniformity trumps the lesser disparity. Moreover, allowing a defendant's sentence to be reduced on account of a codefendant's plea bargain may tend to discourage the government from offering plea bargains in cases involving multiple defendants. This result should be avoided on grounds of judicial efficiency. Id. at 1359. We hold that the district court did not err in refusing to depart downward for the purpose of avoiding unequal treatment of codefendants.