Court Opinion

ID: 9440573
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 16:55:03.42173+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:27:47.247041
License: Public Domain

HARTZ, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I fully join Judge Tymkovich’s opinion. I write separately only to suggest that Story may also not be entitled to plain-error relief because she has failed to establish prejudice. It is doubtful that she has shown that her sentence would have been any lower had the district court not made its error. Although rehabilitation is not a proper ground for increasing a sentence, the threat of recidivism is. And whether one views the problem as a need for rehabilitation or a need to protect against recidivism may well depend only on the lens one is looking through. A sentencing judge who believes participation in a rehabilitation program to be essential may often also believe that the chance of recidivism is quite high absent participation. If no rehabilitation program is available, the judge may think that a longer sentence is appropriate to protect the public. Thus, the sentencing judge in this case might well have decided that if Story could not participate in a rehabilitation program in prison, the risk of her engaging in crime upon release required an above-guidelines sentence. Indeed, the grounds checked off by the court in the Statement of Reasons for Story’s above-guidelines sentence include “to protect the public from further crimes of the defendant.”