Opinion ID: 155147
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Permissibility of Departure Factors

Text: In considering whether the district court relied on any impermissible departure factors, we address as a general matter whether a district court may rely on offender characteristics, such as age and infirmity, to support a criminal history category departure under section 4A1.3. In section 5K2.0, the Guidelines discuss the use of offender characteristics in the context of departures: 6 We note that the district court could have considered a downward departure separately under U.S.S.G. §§ 5H1.1 (age and infirmity) or 5H1.4 (physical condition). In this case, the district court did not depart downward under these separate guideline sections, and in fact stated that it was not departing under § 5H1.4 alone because it did not find that Collins suffered from an “extraordinary physical impairment” as required by that guideline. Accordingly, we emphasize that we discuss age and infirmity only as factors supporting the court’s decision to grant a departure under § 4A1.3. - 18 - An offender characteristic or other circumstance that is not ordinarily relevant in determining whether a sentence should be outside the applicable guideline range may be relevant to this determination if such characteristic or circumstance is present to an unusual degree and distinguishes the case from the “heartland” cases covered by the guidelines in a way that is important to the statutory purposes of sentencing. U.S.S.G. § 5K2.0, p.s. We have previously concluded that despite the placement of section 4A1.3 in chapter 4 of the Guidelines, departures under section 4A1.3 are not “beyond the purview” of section 5K2.0. Maldonado-Campos, 920 F.2d at 719 n.2; see also Bowser, 941 F.2d at 1023-25. But see United States v. Shoupe, 988 F.2d 440, 444-47 (3d Cir. 1993); United States v. Pinckney, 938 F.2d 519, 521 (4th Cir. 1991). Cf. United States v. Spencer, 25 F.3d 1105, 1112-13 (D.C. Cir. 1994) (declining to choose between Shoupe and Pinckney, on the one hand, and the contrary decisions of the Tenth Circuit, on the other). In other words, the overstatement of a defendant’s criminal history or likelihood of recidivism is a “mitigating factor not adequately taken into account by the Sentencing Commission” within the meaning of section 5K2.0. Because departures under section 4A1.3 are made pursuant to section 5K2.0, and because the above-quoted paragraph from section 5K2.0 explicitly sanctions the use of offender characteristics in the context of departures, we conclude that a sentencing court may utilize offender characteristics that bear upon a defendant’s criminal history or likelihood for recidivism in considering a departure under section 4A1.3. - 19 - In the past, we sanctioned the limited use of offender characteristics to support a criminal history departure under section 4A1.3. In United States v. Bowser, 941 F.2d at 1024, we looked to U.S.S.G. § 5H1.1, 7 which generally rejects age as a ground for departure, and concluded that age alone is insufficient to support a departure under section 4A1.3. We nevertheless stated that “taken in the context of the other circumstances of a defendant’s criminal history, [age] could be germane to whether the career offender category is appropriately applied to an individual defendant.” Id. We continue to adhere to this approach today and conclude that in considering a departure under section 4A1.3, a district court may rely on offender characteristics such as age and infirmity that are logically relevant to a defendant’s criminal history or likelihood for recidivism, but only in combination with other circumstances of a defendant’s criminal history. We see nothing in the Guidelines that precludes a district court’s use of offender characteristics as part of the factual basis for a criminal history departure under section 4A1.3. See Shoupe, 988 F.2d at 447 (defendant’s age at time of prior convictions and time between convictions are proper factors to consider in 7 U.S.S.G. § 5H1.1 provides: Age (including youth) is not ordinarily relevant in determining whether a sentence should be outside the applicable guideline range. Age may be a reason to impose a sentence below the applicable guideline range when the defendant is elderly and infirm and where a form of punishment such as home confinement might be equally efficient as and less costly than incarceration. - 20 - determining whether to depart under § 4A1.3 from the career offender category); United States v. Brown, 985 F.2d 478, 482 (9th Cir. 1993) (age at time of prior convictions and nature of those convictions are proper factors to consider in determining whether career offender status significantly over-represents seriousness of defendant’s criminal history); United States v. Smith, 909 F.2d 1164, 1169 (8th Cir. 1990) (length and scope of defendant’s criminal career, including age of defendant at time of prior offenses and time between prior offenses, is relevant to decision whether to depart from criminal history category); United States v. Brown, 903 F.2d 540, 544 (8th Cir. 1990) (although age is not a factor warranting a general departure under § 5K2.0, it may be considered in determining whether, under § 4A1.3, criminal history category overstated severity of defendant’s criminal history). Having said this, we emphasize the continuing validity of our statement that “[i]n reviewing a district court’s decision to depart from the otherwise applicable guideline range, we must be careful not to blur the distinction between offense level departures and criminal history departures.” United States v. Okane, 52 F.3d 828, 832 (10th Cir. 1995). This does not mean, however, that offender characteristics, such as age and infirmity, cannot be used as a matter of law to support a finding under section 4A1.3 that an offender has a more or less serious criminal history (as in Bowser) or is more or less likely to commit further crimes - 21 - (as is the case here). Rather, it means, as Okane made clear, that circumstances making up a defendant’s criminal history cannot be used as a basis for an offenselevel departure and circumstances surrounding the instant offense cannot be used as a basis for a criminal history category departure. Thus, in Okane, the district court erred by granting an upward offense-level departure based on the defendant’s admission of thirteen uncharged bank robberies. Id. at 833. In reversing the district court, we stated that “[w]hile uncharged conduct is certainly a valid basis for an upward departure, . . . the district court erred by increasing Mr. Okane’s offense level, as opposed to his criminal history category.” Id. Nothing in today’s opinion disrupts this conclusion. Having determined that offender characteristics, in general, may make up part of the mix of factors supporting a departure under section 4A1.3, we next address whether the particular factors identified by the district court in this case are permissible departure factors. After reviewing the Sentencing Guidelines, policy statements, and official commentary of the Sentencing Commission, Koon, 116 S. Ct. at 2044, we conclude that none of the factors relied upon by the district court as part of its composite rationale is an impermissible departure factor. The Guidelines explicitly state that age and physical condition, the first two factors identified by the district court, are “not ordinarily relevant” in considering whether a defendant is a candidate for departure. U.S.S.G. §§ 5H1.1, 5H1.4. - 22 - Because these factors are not ordinarily relevant, they are “discouraged” factors. Therefore, as stated in Koon, the district court could have relied on these factors only if they were “present to an exceptional degree or in some other way [made] the case different from the ordinary case where the factor[s are] present.” Id. at 2045. After reviewing the record, we conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in finding that Collins’s age and infirmity were present to an exceptional degree. The Pre-Sentence Report indicates that Collins was 64 years old on the date of sentencing. Medical records provided by Collins’s attending physician and a urological report undertaken at the request of the United States Marshal’s Office prior to sentencing indicate that Collins suffers from heart disease, high blood pressure, ulcers, arthritis and prostatitis. The medical records further show that Collins faces the prospect of intrusive surgery to address his prostatitis. Although the terms “elderly” and “infirm” are difficult to define, and more difficult to measure in degree, we cannot say that the district court abused its discretion in concluding that the factors of age and infirmity are present in this case to an exceptional degree. We therefore conclude that the district court properly relied upon Collins’s age and infirmity in departing downward from the Guidelines. - 23 - Similarly, we conclude that the district court properly relied upon the circumstances surrounding Collins’s 1986 conviction. In determining that Collins was outside the heartland of the career offender category, the district court found that one of Collins’s predicate convictions occurred close to ten years prior to the instant offense, involved conduct committed beyond the ten-year time limit, and resulted in a relatively lenient sentence. Although not categorized as forbidden, discouraged, or encouraged, the circumstances cited by the district court are not unmentioned in the Guidelines. In particular, the Guidelines recognize that a prior conviction close to the ten-year time limit may be relevant in determining whether a departure is appropriate under section 4A1.3. Section 4A1.3 contains the example of “a defendant with two minor misdemeanor convictions close to ten years prior to the instant offense and no other evidence of prior criminal behavior in the intervening period.” U.S.S.G. § 4A1.3, p.s. Rather than setting forth the minimum requirements for a criminal history category departure, this example is meant to guide the district courts in the kinds of factors that are relevant in deciding whether a particular defendant lies outside the heartland of the applicable criminal history or career offender category. Thus, a district court properly could conclude that a defendant with a predicate conviction close to ten years prior to the instant offense is not as likely to recidivate as a career offender whose predicate convictions occurred closer to - 24 - the instant offense. See United States v. Fletcher, 15 F.3d 553, 557 (6th Cir. 1994) (“[A] district court may take the age of prior convictions into account when considering a defendant’s likelihood of . . . recidivism.”). A district court also could conclude that a defendant who received a “relatively lenient” sentence for a predicate conviction has a less serious criminal history than a career offender whose predicate convictions resulted in lengthy periods of incarceration. See United States v. Spencer, 25 F.3d 1105, 1113 (D.C. Cir. 1994) (stating that “the relatively minor nature” of a defendant’s prior convictions may be considered in deciding whether to depart under section 4A1.3). Finally, a district court could conclude that delay in the prosecution of a defendant who committed the conduct underlying a predicate conviction more than ten years prior to the instant offense, under some circumstances, may warrant a departure. See United States v. Martinez, 77 F.3d 332, 336-37 (9th Cir. 1996) (recognizing that delay in the prosecution of an offense resulting in unfair sentencing consequences could constitute a permissible ground for departure). We see nothing in the structure and theory of the Guidelines that would restrict the district court from considering these kinds of factual circumstances which bear upon the seriousness of a defendant’s criminal history or likelihood of recidivism. Therefore, we conclude that the circumstances surrounding Collins’s 1986 predicate conviction are permissible factors for departure. - 25 -