Court Opinion

ID: 9483786
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:31:26.749332+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:50.106569
License: Public Domain

KENNEDY, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur in the court’s opinion with the exception of the reversal of the District Court’s finding that defendant had not demonstrated an acceptance of personal responsibility for his criminal conduct. I disagree with the panel’s interpretation of the purpose of the Acceptance of Responsibility Guideline, U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1, and limitations it places on what behavior may be considered by a district court in applying that Guideline. The panel prohibits the District Court from considering post-arrest, post-guilty plea criminal behavior not similar or related to the crime for which a defendant is convicted. This presupposes that the “legitimate societal interests” referred to in the Background Application Note to section 3E1.1, are limited to encouraging a defendant not to commit the same or similar crimes. In my view, that is too cramped a reading of the purposes of *736encouraging acceptance of responsibility by criminal defendants. It should be open to the sentencing court to conclude that defendants who fail to live within the law after arrest, and especially after they plead guilty or have agreed to plead guilty, have not accepted responsibility for their criminal actions.
The first consideration in favor of a defendant qualifying for accepting responsibility is “voluntary termination or withdrawal from criminal conduct or associations.” Application Note 1(a) to U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1. This is broadly written. United States v. Watkins, 911 F.2d 983 (5th Cir.1990) (section 3E1.1 is “phrased in general terms”). It does not include the word “related” before the phrase “criminal conduct,” which could quite easily have been done had that been the Sentencing Commission’s intent. Instead, the clear import of the language is to include all criminal conduct and associations. Inclusion of “associations” as well as conduct corroborates this broad interpretation. By including consideration of whether a defendant continues relationships with criminal confederates, the Sentencing Commission was going beyond limited consideration of whether a defendant was continuing the same or similar criminal conduct.
When the Background Application Note does refer to “related conduct,” it does so in defining the conduct for which a defendant is to have accepted responsibility, not in limiting what behavior a sentencing court may consider to determine whether responsibility has been accepted. On the whole, the Commission indicates little limitation on what considerations are legitimate in granting the acceptance of responsibility reduction. The Commission took great pains, especially in the amendment effective November 1,1991, to indicate that a defendant’s decision not to plead guilty should not in all cases prohibit the reduction. Other than that, section 3E1.1 is written inclusively. The list of considerations in Application Note 1 explicitly states that it is “not limited to” the factors enumerated. The last sentence of Application Note 3 lends additional support to my conclusion. Truthful admission of guilt is significant evidence of acceptance. “However, this evidence may be outweighed by conduct of the defendant that is inconsistent with such acceptance of responsibility.” The issue appears to be whether the questioned conduct “is inconsistent” with defendant’s statement that I realize I have done what I should not have done — engage in illegal conduct. To continue to engage in other illegal conduct puts the lie to the statement. The only other possible limitation on what may be considered under 3E1.1 is found in the Background Application Note parenthetical which might be read to limit the behavior which may be considered to that listed in Application Note 1 and “equivalent action.” This is hardly a limitation, and certainly not one which eliminates unrelated criminal conduct from consideration, especially when the first listed factor is “withdrawal from criminal conduct.”
This is not to say a murderer caught stealing gum cannot receive the acceptance of responsibility reduction. It is simply to state that a district court might or might not find the theft of chewing gum in particular circumstances illuminative of whether the murderer has accepted responsibility for her actions. I believe such a determination should rest with the district court. Under Application Note 5 the sentencing judge is entitled to great deference, and nothing in U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1 makes unrelated criminal conduct an impermissible consideration.
Thus, in the present case, when in denying the acceptance of responsibility reduction to defendant the District Court considered his attempted theft and use of a controlled substance, it acted within its discretion under the Guidelines. I would AFFIRM.