Opinion ID: 1248604
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Statement in the Indictment

Text: To determine the last date of the offense of conviction, a sentencing court looks at the conduct charged in the information or indictment. See United States v. Broderson, 67 F.3d 452, 456 (2d Cir.1995); U.S.S.G. § 1B1.11 cmt. n. 2. Like any other factual determination made by a sentencing court, the finding of the last date of the offense of conviction must withstand clear error review. See, e.g., United States v. Carter, 410 F.3d 1017, 1027 (8th Cir.2005); United States v. Nash, 115 F.3d 1431, 1441 (9th Cir.1997). Because a sentencing court may not consider uncharged or acquitted conduct in determining the last date of the offense of conviction, see United States v. Zagari, 111 F.3d 307, 324-25 (2d Cir.1997), the dates alleged in the charging instrument will generally be determinative for ex post facto purposes, see Broderson, 67 F.3d at 456. However, circumstances may arise where a date in the charging instrument clearly exceeds the offensive conduct. See, e.g., United States v. Foote, 413 F.3d 1240, 1250 & n. 6 (10th Cir.2005) (finding that uncontradicted evidence established that offense ended on December 7, 1998 despite statement in indictment that conspiracy continued until October 2000). In such circumstances, it is clearly erroneous for a sentencing court to rely on the date charged in the indictment to determine the last date of the offense of conviction. For example, in Nash, the Ninth Circuit had a case before it in which the indictment charged that the defendant's fraudulent scheme continued until 1988, but all of the specific incidents described in the indictment occurred before November 1, 1987. 115 F.3d at 1441. The Nash court upheld the district court's determination that, contrary to the statement in the indictment, the offense was completed prior to November 1, 1987. Id. Admittedly, we have not always made perfectly clear that dates in an indictment are not necessarily dispositive. In Broderson, for example, we stated, [t]he last date of the offense, as alleged in the indictment, is the controlling date for ex post facto purposes. 67 F.3d at 456. Read in context, however, this language only stands for the unsurprising proposition that a sentencing court must look to the conduct alleged in the count of the charging instrument under which the defendant was convicted to determine the last date of offensive conduct. The defendant in Broderson was charged with illegally transmitting an interstate wire communication on October 1, 1990. Id. On appeal, Broderson asserted the government could have charged the crime differently, but he did not contest that he had transmitted the wire communication on that date. Id. at 456-57. We ruled that the district court had correctly determined the last date of offensive conduct was October 1, 1990, as charged in the indictment. Id. at 457. Broderson thus did not consider or decide the question of whether a district court should rely on a date in a charging instrument that clearly exceeds the offensive conduct. We now hold that it may not. The time period provided for in the charging instrument in this case clearly exceeds the offensive conduct. Although the information states that Kilkenny executed the M & T bank fraud scheme from in or about September 2000 through on or about May 8, 2002, neither the information nor the stipulated facts accompanying the plea agreement describe any offensive conduct taken by Kilkenny with respect to the M & T bank fraud scheme after 2000. It is instead uncontested that the M & T loan was applied for and received by Kilkenny in September 2000 and that he took no further action with respect to that loan  apart from failing to repay it  after September 2000. There is no evidence that any offensive conduct regarding the M & T bank fraud scheme occurred after 2000. It was therefore clear error for the district court to rely on the May 8, 2002 date.