Court Opinion

ID: 9486519
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:51:01.519139+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:46.205750
License: Public Domain

FAIRCHILD, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur in all parts of the opinion except for the comment which follows: I could agree that if a defendant, in a timely and otherwise adequate acknowledgement of guilt, claims that his role in the offense is less significant than the evidence demonstrates, his attempt to minimize his actual role is evidence on which the sentencing judge could deny a reduction for acceptance of responsibility. A defendant should, however, be entitled to describe exactly what he did, consistent with the facts, without impairing his chance at the reduction. Absent a demonstration that the fact was different, I do not agree that “[t]he defendant’s statement that he Svas simply acting as a mule’ speaks more eloquently than anything in this record that Salvador failed to accept responsibility for his offenses.” Ante at 1383.