Opinion ID: 662450
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Restitution to the Victim

Text: 22 The second reason the district court gave for departing downward from the Guidelines sentencing range was to implement what the court termed its primary [sentencing] objective of ensuring that Seacott could make restitution to Lampco. Under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3553(a)(7), sentencing courts are directed to consider the need to provide restitution to any victims of the offense. We have held that this provision is a factor that the district court may consider in sentencing the defendant within the Guidelines range. United States v. Franz, 886 F.2d 973, 979 n. 7 (7th Cir.1989); United States v. Barber, 881 F.2d 345, 351 n. 3 (7th Cir.1989), cert. denied, 495 U.S. 922, 110 S.Ct. 1956, 109 L.Ed.2d 318 (1990); see also United States v. Bolden, 889 F.2d 1336, 1341 (4th Cir.1989). The question here is whether restitution is a proper ground to be considered to justify departing downward from the Guidelines range. We review this ground for departure de novo. Willey, 985 F.2d at 1349. In United States v. Carey, 895 F.2d 318, 323 (7th Cir.1990), we held that a sentencing court could not base a downward departure on the fact that a defendant made restitution to his victim prior to the adjudication of his guilt. We based our conclusion on the fact that restitution was explicitly considered by the Guidelines as a factor in determining whether a defendant was entitled to a two-level reduction for acceptance of responsibility under U.S.S.G. Sec. 3E1.1 comment. (n. 1(b)). Id. The Commentary to Sec. 3E1.1 demonstrates that the Commission adequately considered restitution as a mitigating circumstance when formulating the Guidelines, id. at 323, and therefore it is not an appropriate ground for departure. See 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3553(b) (departures are permissible only when there exists an aggravating or mitigating circumstance of a kind, or to a degree, not adequately taken into consideration by ... the guidelines). 23 In the instant case, unlike Carey, the district court did not reward Seacott for making restitution to Lampco prior to his adjudication of guilt. Instead, the court reduced Seacott's sentence in order to give him the opportunity to make full restitution to Lampco and minimize the cost to the taxpayers. But if, under Carey, a district court cannot depart downward as a reward for restitution made to the victim, it would make little sense to hold that district courts may depart downward based on the promise of future restitution. Moreover, as the Sixth Circuit has reasoned, it seems that the Sentencing Commission considered including the ability to make restitution as a possible mitigating circumstance, yet rejected it as a basis for departure from the guidelines by explicitly stating that socio-economic status is not relevant in the determination of a sentence. See U.S.S.G. Sec. 5H1.10, p.s. United States v. Harpst, 949 F.2d 860, 863 (6th Cir.1991). [A] rule permitting greater leniency in sentencing in those cases in which restitution is at issue and is a meaningful possibility ... would, we believe, nurture the unfortunate practice of disparate sentencing based on socio-economic status, which the Guidelines were intended to supplant. Id. at 863. The framers of the Guidelines stated that 24 [u]nder [pre-Guidelines] sentencing practice, courts sentence[d] to probation an inappropriately high percentage of offenders guilty of certain economic crimes, such as theft, tax evasion, antitrust offenses, insider trading, fraud, and embezzlement, that in the Commission's view are 'serious'. If the guidelines were to permit courts to impose probation instead of prison in many or all such cases, the ... sentences would continue to be ineffective. The Commission's solution to this problem has been to write guidelines that classify as 'serious' (and therefore subject to mandatory prison sentences) many offenses for which probation is now frequently given. 25 U.S.S.G. Ch. 1. Pt. A.4(d), pp. 1.8-1.9. Allowing sentencing courts to depart downward based on a defendant's ability to make restitution would thwart the intent of the guidelines to punish financial crimes through terms of imprisonment by allowing those who could pay to escape prison. It would also create an unconstitutional system where the rich could in effect buy their way out of prison sentences. See Bearden v. Georgia, 461 U.S. 660, 672-73, 103 S.Ct. 2064, 2072-73, 76 L.Ed.2d 221 (1983) (To ... deprive the probationer of his conditional freedom simply because, through no fault of his own, he cannot pay the fine ... would be contrary to the fundamental fairness required by the Fourteenth Amendment.); Tate v. Short, 401 U.S. 395, 91 S.Ct. 668, 28 L.Ed.2d 130 (1971) (violation of the equal protection clause to limit punishment to payment of a fine for those who are able to pay it but to convert the fine to imprisonment for those unable to pay). Thus, a defendant's ability to make restitution is not grounds for a downward departure under the Guidelines. See also United States v. Bolden, 889 F.2d 1336, 1340-41 (4th Cir.1989) ([W]e do not think that the economic desirability of attempting to preserve [defendant's] job so as to enable him to make restitution warrants a downward adjustment from the guidelines).