Court Opinion

ID: 9499759
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:56:59.12839+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:59:42.645532
License: Public Domain

TALLMAN, Circuit Judge,
with whom Circuit Judge RYMER joins,
concurring.
I am bound by precedent to concur. I write separately, however, because of the injustice resulting from our precedents. In our zeal to be good legal technicians, we are abandoning the role of common sense in fashioning appropriate punishment for repeat offenders like Beltran-Munguia. Our current case law yields a result that minimizes a crime effected by exploiting a victim’s helplessness. For purposes of a “crime of violence” enhancement, I have conceptual difficulties characterizing the “force” of physical penetration imposed on an unwilling victim as different in kind from the physical force imposed to overcome the victim’s unwillingness. From the victim’s perspective, both acts are “violent” and surely non-consensual. Nevertheless, I cannot say that the Oregon offense requires the prosecution to prove the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force to sustain a conviction. See United States v. Hasan, 983 F.2d 150, 151 (9th Cir.1992).
Were I writing on a clean slate, I would hold that the Oregon conviction categorically qualifies as a “crime of violence” because it is a specifically enumerated offense — namely,, a “forcible sex offense.” In my view, a sex offense committed against an unconscious victim is as much a “crime of violence” as a sex offense involving physical force committed against a conscious victim. In both circumstances, the perpetrator commits an act against the victim’s will. The law presumes that were the victim competent and capable of giving consent, she would not, and that she would resist the assault as best she could.
Neither the Sentencing Guidelines nor their commentary define “forcible sex offenses.” Were I not confined by United States v. Lopez-Montanez, 421 F.3d 926 (9th Cir.2005), I would interpret the undefined term- — -“forcible sex offenses” — to encompass noneonsensual sex crimes. In “ordinary, con-temporary, and common parlance,” United States v. Trinidad-Aquino, 259 F.3d 1140, 1145 (9th Cir.2001), “forcible” denotes an act against a person’s *1054will. “Forcible” should encompass all acts undertaken against the victim’s will, regardless of whether the perpetrator inflicts the assault by physical force, threatens physical force, or cripples the victim’s ability to consent.
The Guidelines’ language and the Commission’s intent compel this interpretation. “Forcible sex offenses,” like other listed offenses — e.g., statutory rape, sexual abuse of a minor, extortionate extension of credit, and burglary of a dwelling — automatically qualify as “crimes of violence,” regardless of whether force is an essential element. See United States v. Pereira-Salmeron, 337 F.3d 1148, 1152 (9th Cir.2003). The Commission amended the Guidelines’ commentary in November 2003 to clarify that enumerated offenses need not involve the actual use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force. See United States v. Asberry, 394 F.3d 712, 716 (9th Cir.2005) (tracking evolving language of section 2L1.2) (citing U.S. Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual app. C, amend. 658, Reason for Amend., 397-402 (2003)).
The Sentencing Commission selected certain offenses that deserve treatment as crimes of violence per se, probably because the selected crimes inherently pose an implicit “threatened use of force.” Pereirar-Salmeron, 337 F.3d at 1152. Furthermore, the Guidelines’ language “indicates the Commission’s intent to cover crimes that involve an implicit use of force or a substantial potential for violence.” Id. at 1153. Nonconsensual sex offenses fall within this category of crimes. See United States v. Yanez-Saucedo, 295 F.3d 991, 995-96 (9th Cir.2002) (rejecting the notion that rape absent a forcible compulsion element lacks any degree of force); United States v. Riley, 183 F.3d 1155, 1159 (9th Cir.1999) (likening simple rape — intercourse without the victim’s lawful consent — to crimes previously deemed inherently violent); United States v. Ivory, 475 F.3d 1232, 1236 (11th Cir.2007) (recognizing that nonconsensual penetration “involves at least some level of physical force and pressure directed against another person’s body”); State v. Bashaw, 296 Or. 50, 672 P.2d 48, 49 (1983) (considering rape a crime of “degradation as well as violence”).
In addition to the Guidelines’ language and the Commission’s intent, a fundamental rule of statutory construction supports interpreting “forcible sex offenses” to encompass all sex acts taken against a victim’s will. Specifically, courts should not interpret one provision in a way that renders another part of the same statute superfluous. United States v. Fish, 368 F.3d 1200, 1205 (9th Cir.2004). Along these lines, “ ‘no definition should be completely subsumed within another.’ ” United States v. Stevens, 462 F.3d 1169, 1171 (9th Cir.2006) (quoting United States v. Lopez-Solis, 447 F.3d 1201, 1205 n. 10 (9th Cir.2006)). By defining “forcible sex offenses” to encompass only a narrower group of offenses, i.e., those offenses with a “forcible compulsion” element, the “has as an element” definition in section 2L1.2(b)(l)(A)(ii) subsumes “forcible sex offenses,” and renders the phrase meaningless. For this reason, we would be better advised to interpret the term as did the Third Circuit in United States v. Remoi, 404 F.3d 789 (3d Cir.2005).
In Remoi, the court concluded that a defendant’s prior New Jersey conviction for penetration against a physically helpless, mentally defective, or mentally incapacitated victim constituted a “forcible sex offense,” and thus a “crime of violence.” Id. at 794. The court explained that the Commission “did not mean to limit ‘forcible sex offenses’ to those involving the application of direct physical force, as opposed to some other type of compulsion,” *1055where doing so renders the provision superfluous. Id. at 794-95. The court further noted that the Commission considers sex crimes against minors per se “forcible sex offenses” because a minor lacks the capacity to consent to sexual relations, which makes the relations “forcible.” Id. at 795.1 Because the logic applies equally to other types of vulnerable victims, the Third Circuit had no trouble concluding that penetration against a “physically helpless, mentally defective or mentally incapacitated” victim constituted a “forcible sex offense.” Remoi 404 F.3d at 795. Finally, the court recognized the Sentencing Commission’s November 2003 Amendment as clarifying that an enumerated offense always qualifies as a “crime of violence,” regardless of whether the perpetrator employed physical force. Id.; see also United States v. Luciano-Rodriguez, 442 F.3d 320, 329 (5th Cir.2006) (Owen, J., dissenting) (concluding that sexual intercourse without legally effective consent falls within the scope of “forcible sex offenses” based on the history behind the definition).
We may find under this post-Boofcer/Fanfan advisory Guidelines regime that district judges can nonetheless dispense justice in fashioning an appropriate sentence for recidivist offenders like Beltran-Munguia. If so, then the mental gymnastics of the panel’s opinion here, though an interesting academic discussion, does no real harm to sentencing discretion. Nevertheless, there is confusion in our case law, and I urge our court to revisit any precedent that precludes us from classifying nonconsensual sex as a “crime of violence” under section 2L1.2(b)(l)(A)(ii). We should join the Third Circuit and define “forcible sex offenses” to include any sexual act committed against the victim’s will or consent. See Remoi, 404 F.3d at 796. Because Judge Berzon correctly applies existing circuit precedent here, I reluctantly concur.

. In 2001, the Commission amended section 2L1.2 by defining “crime of violence” with the parenthetical "(including sexual abuse of a child)” after “forcible sex offenses.” Asber-ry, 394 F.3d at 716. In 2003, the Commission further amended the definition of “crime of violence” to list “sexual abuse of a minor” separately. Id. The 2002 version applied in Remoi. Though the 2004 edition of the Guidelines applies in this case, the reasoning in Remoi is persuasive. That the Commission once cited "sexual abuse of a minor” as an example of a “forcible sex offense” supports extending the term to all sex acts taken against a victim’s will, not just those involving forcible compulsion. The Commission revised the definition in 2003 to list "sexual abuse of a minor” only because the previous definition led to confusion about whether the specified offenses, particularly sexual abuse of a minor, had to include as an element "the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another.” As-berry, 394 F.3d at 716 (citing U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual app. C, amend. 658, Reason for Amendment, 397-402 (2003)). Had the Commission intended that "forcible sex offenses” involve physical force or a threat of force, it could have said so at the same time.