Opinion ID: 752489
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Thirty-Month Downward Departure

Text: 49 After adopting the offense level of 36, as advocated in the PSR, the sentencing judge instituted a sentence of 121 months, a thirty-month downward departure from the guidelines range for that offense level. In so doing, he cited the conditions under which Brinton was held prior to his transfer to a federal facility. This factor is not mentioned in the sentencing guidelines. In such cases, the Supreme Court has set forth the procedure to be followed: 50 [T]he 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 Guidelines will be highly infrequent. 51 Koon v. United States, 518 U.S. 81, 96, 116 S.Ct. 2035, 2045, 135 L.Ed.2d 392 (1996) (citation omitted). 52 Here, the district court failed to explain why Brinton's incarceration in non-federal institutions was so unusual as to take the case outside the guidelines' heartland. A downward departure of thirty months, on the basis of two and one-half months in state custody, does not comport with the structure and theory of the guidelines as a whole. We ultimately need not decide whether the district court abused its discretion because the government waived its challenge to the downward departure by failing to object below, see United States v. Castaneda, 94 F.3d 592, 594 n. 4 (9th Cir.1996), and Brinton's sentence must be vacated regardless. Nonetheless, the district court may wish to carefully consider the propriety of such a departure when it resentences Brinton.