Opinion ID: 546322
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: 2 On November 22, 1988, Pearson pled guilty to eight counts of bank robbery and attempted bank robbery under 18 U.S.C. Secs. 2113(a) and (d). Pearson admitted that he wrote a demand note for each robbery, and he believed that in each note he claimed to have a gun. He denied, however, that he actually had used or possessed a gun. The government struck any allegations that Pearson was armed from the indictment before Pearson entered his guilty plea. 3 The district court adopted the offense level computation in the presentence report, calculating Pearson's sentence as follows. Under the version of the Sentencing Guidelines then in effect, the base offense level for robbery was 18. United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual Sec. 2B3.1(a) (hereinafter Guidelines ). 1 The base offense level must then be increased according to the value of the loss. Id. at Sec. 2B3.1(b)(1). Because each robbery involved a financial institution, the court treated the loss for each as at least $5,000, which increased the base offense level to 19. Id. at Sec. 2B3.1(b)(1)(B). 4 The court then adjusted the offense level to encompass all the eight counts to which Pearson pled guilty. The guidelines determine the combined offense level by taking the offense level for the most serious count, and increasing it by five levels if the number of offense units is more than five. Guidelines Sec. 3D1.4. Each of Pearson's eight offenses was equally serious and thus had the same offense level of 19. The district court added five levels, for a total of 24. Pearson then received a two-level reduction for accepting responsibility under Guidelines Sec. 3E1.1(a), leaving his offense level at 22. The district court set his criminal history category at III, based on earlier drunk driving and hit and run convictions, and because Pearson was on probation when he committed the bank robberies. 5 Pearson's total offense level of 22 and his criminal history category of III resulted in a guideline range of 51 to 63 months. The presentence report recommended a sentence of 168 months (14 years), justifying the upward departure by noting the number of robberies Pearson admitted to and Pearson's claimed possession of a weapon. At sentencing, the district judge departed from the guideline range and sentenced Pearson to 120 months (ten years) imprisonment and five years supervised release. The judge stated: 6 I'm going lower from what the probation officer recommended, and not because I think the probation officer is wrong, but because I'm in a way bound by my own history, and I had another case in which the defendant hadn't as many bank robberies, but it was the second or third time through the system, to him I gave 15 years. And this is [the] first time that this defendant has been charged with these crimes. So if I felt 15 was fair for the other fellow who--then 14 wouldn't be fair to this defendant. That's the only reason I'm doing it, not because I feel that the probation officer is right or wrong, any more than I'm right or wrong, because it's a very difficult thing. 7 He stated further that the reason for departure was explained in the presentence report. The report based its recommendation of departure on the number of offenses in light of the nature of the face-to-face confrontation with the victims, the threat of use of a firearm, and the possible harm to the public. 2 Although Pearson had been a suspect in a number of other bank robberies, the judge indicated that he took into consideration only the eight counts to which Pearson pled guilty. 8 Pearson does not challenge the district judge's calculation of his offense level or his criminal history category. He argues that the departure upward from the 51-63 month range to 120 months was improperly based on the number of offenses to which he pled guilty, a factor Pearson claims was already taken into account when the judge added five levels for his more than five offenses under Guidelines Sec. 3D1.4. He also claims the departure violates due process.