Opinion ID: 766961
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: General Requirements for Granting a Downward Departure

Text: 10 The Sentencing Guidelines  `specify an appropriate [sentencing range] for each class of convicted persons' based on various factors related to the offense and the offender. Koon, 518 U.S. at 92 (quoting U.S.S.G., Ch. 1, Pt. A). If a case is an ordinary one, a federal district court is required to impose a sentence that falls within the applicable Guideline range. See id. 11 A district court may depart from the applicable Guideline range if it finds that there exists an aggravating or mitigating circumstance of a kind, or to a degree, not adequately taken into consideration by the [United States ] Sentencing Commission in formulating the guidelines that should result in a sentence different from that described. 18 U.S.C. S 3553(b). To determine whether the Commission adequately considered a certain circumstance, courts are to consider only the sentencing guidelines, policy statements, and official commentary of the Sentencing Commission. Id. 12 In creating the Guidelines, the Commission did not take into account those cases that are unusual. See Koon, 518 U.S. at 93. The introduction to the Guidelines provides in part: 13 The Commission intends the sentencing courts to treat each guideline as carving out a heartland, a set of typical cases embodying the conduct that each guideline describes. When a court finds an atypical case, one to which a particular guideline linguistically applies but where conduct significantly differs from the norm, the court may consider whether a departure is warranted. 14 U.S.S.G. Ch. 1, Pt. A, Intro. Comment 4(b). Therefore, because the Commission did not adequately take into consideration atypical cases, factors that may make a case unusual allow for departure. See Koon, 518 U.S. at 94. 15 In Koon, the Supreme Court summarized the proper analysis for a district court to use when deciding whether to depart: 16 If the special factor is a forbidden factor, the sentencing court cannot use it as a basis for departure. If the special factor is an encouraged factor, the court is authorized to depart if the applicable Guideline does not already take it into account. If the special factor is a discouraged factor, or an encouraged factor already taken into account by the applicable Guideline, the court should depart only if the factor is present to an exceptional degree or in some other way makes the case different from the ordinary case where the factor is present. If a factor is unmentioned in the Guidelines, the court must, after considering the structure and theory of both relevant individual guidelines and the Guidelines taken as a whole, decide whether it is sufficient to take the case out of the Guideline's heartland. The court must bear in mind the Commission's expectation that departures based on grounds not mentioned in the Guide lines will be highly infrequent. 17 518 U.S. at 95-96 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). 18