Opinion ID: 709030
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Enhancements for Obstruction of Justice

Text: 154 Pursuant to U.S.S.G. Sec. 3C1.1, the District Court applied a two-level enhancement for obstruction of justice to Darden's base offense level for both his aggregated drug offenses and his attempted murders. Darden contends that the evidence is insufficient to support the enhancements. We disagree. 155 Section 3C1.1 provides that if the defendant willfully obstructed or impeded, or attempted to obstruct or impede, the administration of justice during the investigation, prosecution, or sentencing of the instant offense, [the court should] increase the offense by 2 levels. Application note 3(b) to this section states that committing, suborning, or attempting to suborn perjury, is conduct to which the enhancement applies. This provision is not intended to punish a defendant for the exercise of a constitutional right, U.S.S.G. Sec. 3C1.1, comment. (n. 1), and the enhancement should not be applied simply because the jury disbelieved the defendant's testimony. United States v. Patel, 32 F.3d 340, 345 (8th Cir.1994). Nevertheless, [a] defendant is subject to an obstruction enhancement under U.S.S.G. Sec. 3C1.1 if he testifies falsely under oath in regard to a material matter and does so willfully rather than out of confusion or mistake. United States v. Chadwick, 44 F.3d 713, 715 (8th Cir.1995) (per curiam); see also United States v. Dunnigan, 507 U.S. 87, 93-94, 113 S.Ct. 1111, 1116, 122 L.Ed.2d 445 (1993). We give due regard to the district court's observations and express finding that a defendant lied to the jury. United States v. McCormick, 29 F.3d 352, 357 (8th Cir.1994). 156 The District Court found that Darden committed perjury at the trial when he denied any involvement in the attempted murder of Rochelle Bartlett. Darden argues that because other evidence arguably corroborates his testimony, the evidence does not support this finding. We disagree. Earl Parnell, George Noel and Rochelle Bartlett all testified that Darden shot Bartlett on April 16, 1980. Both Bartlett and Noel were eyewitnesses to the shooting, and Parnell testified that Darden himself described his role in the crime to Parnell. The jury found that the government had proven Darden's attempt to murder Bartlett beyond a reasonable doubt. After hearing all the evidence, the court also chose to credit the testimony of these three witnesses rather than Darden's. The court explicitly stated that I'm not penalizing him for asserting his right to testify, but found that in this instance there is a preponderance of the evidence to show that Mr. Darden-Bey did not tell the truth as he testified, based on evidence, specific testimony of Shelly Bartlett Troupe and of George Noel. Sent.Tr. at 146, 145. In determining that Darden falsely asserted his innocence of this crime, the court found by a preponderance of the evidence exactly what the jury found beyond a reasonable doubt. We cannot say that this finding is clearly erroneous. 157 In United States v. Briggs, 969 F.2d 689 (8th Cir.1992), which also involved a conflict between the defendant's testimony and that of another witness, this Court stated that Briggs' testimony that he never sold heroin to Berg directly contradicts Berg's, and is inconsistent with the jury verdict. This testimony alone provides the basis for the court's upward adjustment. Id. at 691-92. Because the evidence establishes that Darden committed this attempted murder on behalf of the drug conspiracy, see supra p. 1546, his perjury justifies the enhancements applied to both Bartlett's attempted murder and the aggregated drug offenses. 17