Opinion ID: 1385884
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: marlowe's as-applied sixth amendment challeng

Text: Marlowe argues that his case squarely presents the Sixth Amendment concerns raised by Justice Scalia's hypothetical and that his as-applied challenge should succeed because his sentence of life imprisonment would not [be] upheld but for the existence of a fact[, here, the mens rea of second-degree murder,] found by the sentencing judge and not by the jury. Id. (Scalia, J., concurring). In essence, Marlowe's argument is that we would not have affirmed the district court had the court imposed an upward variance to life imprisonment from a Guidelines range of 210 to 262 months. Having carefully examined the record in this case and the district court's analysis of the § 3553 factors, I disagree. As the majority opinion aptly summarizes, the evidence presented at trial in this case proved the existence of a violent and depraved conspiracy preying upon inmates at the county jail in Wilson County, Tennessee. The government demonstrated that Marlowe, the supervisor of the second shift at the jail, led A group of officers in regularly and severely beating inmates in the jail. Marlowe and his coconspirators kept an oral knock-out list of inmates whom Marlowe had knocked unconscious with a single blow. Marlowe instructed other guards to strike inmates in the temple because it was a knock-out point. Marlowe and his co-conspirators denied their victims medical care and falsified incident reports to conceal the origins of the injuries that the conspirators inflicted upon their, victims. The case of Walter Kuntz starkly illustrates the depravity and cruelty of Marlowe's conduct in this case. On January 13, 2003, Marlowe twice beat Kuntz, an inmate who arrived at the jail after being apprehended when he attempted to flee the scene of a minor accident. Kuntz was intoxicated, and after Kuntz failed to comply with Marlowe's command to be quiet, Marlowe administered two separate beatings, which included several blows to the head. When Kuntz continued to make noise, Marlowe ordered that another officer beat Kuntz. Later that evening, after receiving information that Kuntz had undergone brain surgery in the recent past, Marlowe did nothing, even as Kuntz's condition continued to deteriorate into unconsciousness and non-responsiveness. Finally, another officer suggested that Kuntz receive medical attention, but when the officers sought medical attention, neither Marlowe nor any other officer informed the medical personnel that Kuntz had received repeated blows to the head. Instead, the officers sought medical attention for a supposed case of alcohol poisoning. Testimony at trial established that head injuries such as Kuntz's are generally treatable if medical care is obtained within the first hours and that the medical personnel who arrived at the jail would have airlifted Kuntz directly to a trauma center, rather than to a local medical center, had they known that Kuntz had possibly suffered a head injury. In sum, as counsel for the government summarized at oral argument, the evidence in this case shows that Marlowe and his co-conspirators essentially abused inmates for sport. They tallied a list of noteworthy beatings, even joking about and reenacting, particular attacks. They resorted to fraudulent incident reports to conceal their wrongdoing, and this pattern of behavior ultimately resulted in the death of one of the inmates under their supervision. The district court in this case conducted a lengthy sentencing hearing, receiving testimony from a number of witnesses for both Marlowe and the government. The court noted the case was filled with heartwrenching aspects, J.A. at 997 (Sent. Hr'g Tr. at 122), but also recognized that Marlowe was a supervisor in the jail, that he was very culpable in Kuntz's death, that the jury convicted him of seven counts, and that substantial evidence at trial concerned Marlowe's abuse of inmates in the jail. J.A. at 998-99 (Sent. Hr'g Tr. at 123-24). The district court noted the sentencing factors contained in § 3553(a), and the context and the record make clear, Rita, 127 S.Ct. at 2469, that the court decided that a sentence of life imprisonment was necessary to reflect the nature and circumstances of this offense, the need to reflect the seriousness of the offense, and the need to provide just punishment. Under the abuse-of-discretion standard that the Supreme Court has directed that we apply to evaluate the substantive reasonableness of sentences, I am satisfied that the district court exercised its discretion appropriately in determining that Marlowe deserved a sentence of life imprisonment. Accordingly, I concur in the judgment upholding Marlowe's sentence.