Opinion ID: 784243
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Downward Departure for Extreme Childhood Abuse

Text: 18 Finally, we consider Reinoso's claim that the district court misapprehended its authority to grant him a downward departure based on extreme childhood abuse. United States v. Rivera, 192 F.3d 81, 85 (2d Cir.1999). [A] district court's decision not to depart from the applicable Guidelines range normally is not appealable, United States v. Garcia, 166 F.3d 519, 521 (2d Cir.1999), except in the rare cases in which the district court has imposed an illegal sentence or mistakenly believed that it lacked the authority to depart, United States v. Lainez-Leiva, 129 F.3d 89, 93 (2d Cir.1997). Reinoso's argument is essentially that the district court misunderstood its authority to depart because it failed to realize that Reinoso's childhood abuse was so severe that it automatically warranted a departure, regardless of whether it contributed to his illegal reentry into the United States. This contention is without merit. 19 At the sentencing proceeding, Reinoso requested a departure based on diminished capacity, but not on childhood abuse, and the district court found that Reinoso's reduced mental capacity did not contribute to the commission of the offense, and therefore no diminished capacity departure was warranted. This determination precludes a childhood abuse departure as well, because a finding that extreme childhood abuse caused mental and emotional conditions that contributed to the defendant's commission of the offense is a factual prerequisite for the departure. Rivera, 192 F.3d at 85 (emphasis added). Although the court did not explicitly consider the childhood abuse departure ground (presumably because defendant never argued it), it had already found, in essence, that the facts of the case at hand [did] not provide any basis for lawful departure. United States v. Brown, 98 F.3d 690, 693 (2d Cir.1996). Given the court's clear factual finding with respect to the diminished capacity ground, the judge's silence on the childhood abuse departure ground is best viewed as reflecting the understanding that a departure on that basis had already been precluded. It certainly does not provide clear evidence of a substantial risk that the judge misapprehended his authority to depart. Id. at 694; United States v. Lawal, 17 F.3d 560, 563 (2d Cir.1994) ([A] district court's silence concerning its refusal to depart downward does not support an inference that the district court misapprehended its scope of authority.). 20 To the extent that Reinoso is arguing that the abuse he suffered was so severe that it automatically warrants a downward departure, regardless of the existence of a causal connection between the abuse and the offense conduct, his contention is precluded by our case law. Rivera explicitly limits the situations in which a departure based on abuse is warranted to those in which the abuse creates to a mental condition that in turn leads to or causes the criminal conduct. Rivera, 192 F.3d at 85.