Court Opinion

ID: 9414438
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 00:21:18.951833+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:16:34.989135
License: Public Domain

E. GRADY JOLLY, Circuit Judge,
specially concurring:
I concur with Judge Dennis’s opinion to the extent that it holds that the outcome in this case is controlled by United States v. Sarmiento-Funes, 374 F.3d 336 (5th Cir.2004). Judge Owen’s dissent is a well-reasoned, scholarly effort reaching a different conclusion, but I cannot agree that the outcome here is not controlled by Sarmiento-Funes. I reach this conclusion notwithstanding the 2003 amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines. Nevertheless, I do believe that Sarmiento-Funes was incorrectly decided because, in my view, “forcible sexual offense”, as used in the Guidelines, both before and after the 2003 amendments, reasonably can be defined as any criminalized sexual assault when the absence of consent is either actual or legal. I would reason similarly as Judge Owen has in her dissent. Still, I cannot concur because I view her dissent and Sarmiento-Funes as irreconcilable and this panel has no authority to overrule that decision. Therefore, I hope that our court will take this case en banc to reconsider our previous reasoning.