Court Opinion

ID: 9480574
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:51:57.418265+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:47:46.289499
License: Public Domain

.TACHA, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion because I find a rational basis in the record for the Parole Commission’s determination that Montoya has a history of assaultive and aggressive behavior. I therefore would uphold the Parole Commission’s decision to go above the parole guidelines and deny parole.
The Parole Commission stated the following reasons for going above the parole guidelines:
Retroactivity does not apply. Neither your recalculated severity rating (old category—Category Six; new category— Category Six) nor your recalculated salient factor score risk category (old category—Poor, old score—1; new category —Poor, new score—1) is more favorable. Your new offense/parole violation has been rated as new criminal conduct of Category Six severity because of your non-peripheral role in the intended distribution of at least 1 kilogram of pure cocaine. You were also convicted of interstate transportation of firearms by a convicted felon. Your new salient factor score is 1. The adult guidelines are applicable to your ease. You have been in federal confinement as a result of your violation behavior for a total of 38 months. Reparole guidelines indicate a customary range of 78-100 months to be served before re-release. After review of all relevant factors and information presented, a decision above the guidelines appears warranted because you are a more serious risk than indicated by your salient factor score in that you have a history of assaultive/aggressive behavior, specifically: 1958—robbery; and 1967—murder. Your criminal behavior began in 1953 and has continued until the present time. Less than three years sub*641sequent to your release in 1980, after 13 years of confinement, you involved yourself in new serious criminal behavior involving drugs and' possession of a firearm.
Our inquiry must begin with the appropriate standard of review in mind. “Judicial review of Parole Board decisions is narrow. The standard of review of action by the Parole Commission is whether the decision is arbitrary and capricious or is an abuse of discretion.” Nunez-Guardado v. Hadden, 722 F.2d 618, 620 (10th Cir.1983). Our review of the Parole Commission’s decision necessarily requires some inquiry into the evidence relied upon by the Parole Commission to support its expressed reasons for denying parole. This factual inquiry, however, is limited.
A court of review need only determine whether the information relied on by the Commission is sufficient to provide a factual basis for its reasons-. The inquiry is not whether the Commission’s decision is supported by the preponderance of the evidence, or even by substantial evidence; the inquiry is only whether there is a rational basis in the record for the Commission’s conclusions embodied in its statement of reasons.
Misasi v. United States Parole Com’n, 835 F.2d 754, 758 (10th Cir.1987) (quoting Solomon v. Elsea, 676 F.2d 282, 290 (7th Cir.1982)).
I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that Montoya’s 1967 second degree murder convictions are not evidence of aggressive and assaultive behavior. Montoya’s November 1967 order of judgment and conviction for second degree murder states:
On or about the 17th day of June, 1967, in Riverside County, in the Central District of California, the defendant, with malice aforethought, killed and murdered George Azrak and Theodore Newton, Jr., who were the immigration officers, to wit, Border Patrol Inspectors in the Immigration and Naturalization Service of the Department of Justice, engaged in the performance of their official duties ... in violation of Title 18, United States Code, sections 1111, 1114_(em-phasis added.)
Section 1111(a) of title 18 defines Montoya’s 1967 offenses as follows: r
Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought. Every murder perpetrated by poison, lying in wait, or any other kind of willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated killing; or committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, any arson, rape, burglary, or robbery; or perpetrated from a premeditated design unlawfully and maliciously to effect the death of any human being other than him who is killed, is murder in the first degree.
Any other murder is murder in the second degree. 18 U.S.C. § 1111(a) (1948) (current version at 18 U.S.C. § 1111(a) (1984)). The definition of “malice aforethought” under federal law is well established:
“Malice aforethought” means an intent, at the time of a killing, willfully to take the life of a human being, or an intent willfully to act in callous and wanton disregard of the consequences to human life.
United States v. Harrelson, 766 F.2d 186, 189 n. 5 (5th Cir.1985) (quoting 2 E. Devitt & C. Blackmar, Federal Jury Practice and Instructions 215 (1977)), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 908, 106 S.Ct. 277, 88 L.Ed.2d 241; see United States v. Chagra, 807 F.2d 398, 402 (5th Cir.1986) (applying definition to 18 U.S.C. section 1111(a)), cert. denied 469 U.S. 1193, 105 S.Ct. 970, 83 L.Ed.2d 973; United States v. Fleming, 739 F.2d 945, 947-48 (4th Cir.1984) (same). This court also has discussed the meaning of “malice aforethought” in section 1111(a), and held that “[mjaliee aforethought may be established by evidence of conduct which is reckless and wanton, and a gross deviation from a reasonable standard of care, of such a nature that a jury is warranted in inferring that the defendant was aware of a serious risk of death or bodily harm.” United States v. Soundingsides, 820 F.2d 1232, 1237 (10th Cir.1987) (emphasis added) (citing United States v. Black Elk, 579 F.2d 49, 51 (8th Cir.1978)). Montoya en*642tered a guilty plea, therefore a jury never passed on the evidence of his conduct. However, under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 11, which was in effect at the time of the 1967 convictions, the court was obligated to inquire and satisfy itself that there was a factual basis for Montoya’s guilty plea before entering judgment. See Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure Rule 11(f), 18 U.S.C. (current version).
As LaFave and Scott explain, at least four modern types of murder are included under the penumbra of murder defined as the unlawful killing of another living human being with “malice aforethought:” (1) intent to kill murder; (2) intent to do serious bodily injury murder; (3) depraved heart murder; and (4) felony murder. See 2 W. LaFave & A. Scott, Substantive Criminal Law § 7.1 at 181-88 (1986) (hereinafter 2 LaFave & Scott). The first three types of murder all have a mens rea requirement related to the killing. Felony murder is included under this definition of “malice aforethought” because the element of malice, usually “callous and wanton disregard of the consequences to human life,” is supplied by intent to commit the underlying felony. At common law and today the underlying crimes for felony murder are limited to those felonies involving a danger to life, such as where the felony involves an act of violence or where death is a natural and probable consequence of the defendant’s conduct in committing the felony. See 2 LaFave & Scott at § 7.5(a)-(b). All four types of murder are theoretical possibilities for a second degree murder conviction under section 1111(a).
My first point of disagreement is with the majority’s assumption that Montoya’s conviction was a form of strict liability imposed under the felony murder doctrine. Of the four theoretically possible types of second degree murder under section 1111(a), the majority ignores without explanation the three types of murder requiring mens rea and assumes that simply because Montoya was not present for the execution of the two border patrol agents, he could not have intended or foreseen their deaths.
It is undisputed that Montoya was present when the two border patrol agents were kidnapped and disarmed. However, the Parole Commission reports and the pre-sentence report are silent on the question of Montoya’s knowledge and state of mind at the time of the kidnapping. Montoya argued before the Parole Commission that he left the scene with no knowledge that the murders were going to take place, but the Parole Commission did not speak to this issue except to say that of the four defendants, Montoya was the “least culpable.” From this equivocal record the majority infers that Montoya’s 1967 convictions were strict liability offenses, and concludes that the convictions therefore do not show aggressive and assaultive behavior. However, an equally likely inference from the record is that Montoya knew, or should have known, that his coconspirators were going to kill or seriously injure the two border patrol agents after he left to complete the marijuana delivery. Montoya’s knowledge or reckless disregard of the danger to the victims and his acquiescence would satisfy the mens rea requirement for, at a minimum, depraved heart murder. Montoya’s 1967 murder convictions would be possible on this ground under an accomplice theory of liability even though he was not actually present when the murders took place. See 2 LaFave & Scott at § 6.7. In short, I see two equally likely inferences from this record regarding Montoya’s mens rea for the 1967 murder convictions, one of which supports the Parole Commission’s conclusion that Montoya has a history of assaultive and aggressive behavior.
However, assuming arguendo that Montoya’s 1967 murder convictions were based on the felony murder doctrine, my second point of disagreement is that the majority fails to explain why the felony underlying the murder conviction is not indicative of assaultive and aggressive behavior. Although the 1967 murder conviction does not specify an underlying felony, the pre-sentencing report shows that Montoya was involved in the kidnapping of the two agents.
Kidnapping was perceived at common law and is still perceived by legislatures *643today as a dangerous offense involving a significant prospect of violence. For these reasons it is included in most modern felony murder statutes. See 2 LaFave & Scott at § 7.5(b). Indeed, in 1984 Congress amended section 1111(a) to include kidnapping as an underlying felony supporting first degree murder. Act of Oct. 12, 1984, Pub.L. No. 98-473, 98 Stat. 2138 (1984). Congress’s inclusion of kidnapping in the list of felonies supporting murder in the first degree without any reference to the particular circumstances is a strong indication of the assaultive and aggressive nature of this crime, and in my mind forecloses any potential debate that we should look to see whether under the facts of a particular case there was a foreseeable danger to human life. See 2 LaFave & Scott at § 7.5(b). If Montoya’s 1967 murder convictions were for felony murder, it is improper to collaterally attack the factual basis for those convictions in a subsequent parole proceeding by denying that Montoya’s actual role in the kidnapping constitutes evidence of assaultive and aggressive behavior.
No matter which way I read this equivocal record, evidence of Montoya’s aggressive and assaultive behavior appears at every option. The record is silent on Montoya’s mens rea at the time of the kidnappings. We cannot know and we should not assume which one of the four potential types of murder was the basis for Montoya’s second degree murder convictions. However, if we assume, as the majority does, that Montoya’s convictions were for felony murder and that Montoya did not intend and could not foresee that his cohorts would murder the border patrol agents, his undisputed involvement in their kidnapping of the agents is sufficient evidence of Montoya’s assaultive and aggressive behavior.
I find that a rational basis exists in the record to support the Parole Commission’s determination that Montoya’s 1958 robbery offense, coupled with his involvement in the 1967 murders, show a history of as-saultive and aggressive behavior. Accordingly, I would hold that the Parole Commission’s action was not arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion.