Opinion ID: 552336
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Court's Reasons.

Text: Inasmuch as a departure necessitates an aggravating or mitigating circumstance of a kind, or to a degree, not adequately taken into consideration by the Sentencing Commission in formulating the guidelines that should result in a sentence different from that described, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3553(b), we start with the question of whether the instant case presented unusual circumstances sufficient to remove Sklar's case from the heartland demarcated by the Sentencing Commission for the offense of conviction. See Aguilar-Pena, 887 F.2d at 350; Diaz-Villafane, 874 F.2d at 49. The court's stated reasons for downward departure were twofold. In its written findings, the court said that it was departing because: the following ... mitigating circumstance [sic] exist ...: Defendant's rehabilitation since arrest and indictment. Defendant's good faith efforts to offer cooperation.