Opinion ID: 772210
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Calculation of Defendant's Criminal History Category

Text: 58 When reviewing the calculation of sentences, we review the district court's factual findings for clear error. See United States v. DeFranco, 30 F.3d 664, 669 (6th Cir.1994). Questions involving the interpretation of the guidelines are legal questions that this Court reviews de novo. See United States v. Partington, 21 F.3d 714, 717 (6th Cir.1994).
59 Pursuant to USSG § 4A1.1(b), two criminal history points are added to a defendant's total offense level for each prior sentence of imprisonment that consists of at least sixty days. The commentary to section 4A1.2 provides that [t]o qualify as a sentence of imprisonment, the defendant must have actually served a period of imprisonment on such sentence.... USSG § 4A1.2, cmt. n.2. However, criminal history points are based on the sentence pronounced, not the length of time actually served. See id. 60 In the instant case, the district court placed Defendant in criminal history category IV based on two misdemeanor convictions for which he was sentenced to four months of imprisonment. The district court added two points for each conviction in calculating Defendant's criminal history category. Defendant contends that because the district court concluded that he did not serve any term of imprisonment for either conviction, he should not have been assessed two points for each prior misdemeanor conviction. The government contends that the assessment of two additional points under § 4A1.1 is proper even if Defendant did not actually serve the term of imprisonment indicated on the judgments of conviction. This Court believes that the focus of the inquiry should be whether Defendant served any of the time that he was ordered to serve. 61 Defendant relies upon United States v. McCrary, 887 F.2d 485 (4th Cir. 1989), overruled on other grounds by United States v. Underwood, 970 F.2d 1336 (4th Cir. 1992), for the proposition that a defendant must have actually served a period of imprisonment in order for the conviction to be counted under § 4A1.1 for two points. In McCrary, the defendant was sentenced to a term of imprisonment; however, the term was suspended. Id. at 489. Thus, the case at hand is distinguishable from McCrary inasmuch as Defendant does not argue that his sentence was suspended, rather he argues that he did not serve the full four months. However, the guidelines do mandate that a defendant must have served at least some time in order for his conviction to be considered a sentence of imprisonment. USSG § 4A1.2 cmt. n.2. If Defendant has served a portion of the sentence, then for purposes of calculating a defendant's criminal history category, the focus is the actual sentence pronounced, not the length of time actually served. See id. 62 The problem here is that it is unclear from the district court's utterance, I give you that, in response to Defendant's objection to the two-point enhancements, 8 whether Defendant served a portion of the four-month term for either of his misdemeanor convictions or whether Defendant served no time at all for the terms sentenced. Therefore, we remand this case so that the district court can clearly determine whether Defendant served any time, or no time, for the misdemeanor convictions. If Defendant did not serve a single day for his misdemeanor convictions, then the district court clearly erred by assessing two points for each conviction as mandated by section 4A1.1, and Defendant's criminal history category would be reduced to III. If, however, Defendant served at least one day of the four-month imprisonment term, then the district court did not err. See United States v. Glidden, 77 F.3d 38 (2d Cir. 1996) (holding that two point assessment was proper where defendant was given suspended sentence of imprisonment and placed on probation, but subsequently had probation revoked and ordered to serve 18 days in jail); United States v. Lewis, 40 F.3d 1325, 1344 (1st Cir. 1994) (holding that two point assessment was proper where defendant was sentenced to five months imprisonment but only served thirty-nine days);United States v. DePriest, 6 F.3d 1201, 1215 (7th Cir. 1993) (holding that two point assessment was proper where defendant was ordered to serve sixty days but only served 44).