Court Opinion

ID: 9498617
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 17:22:36.401433+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:58:56.884633
License: Public Domain

DIANA GRIBBON MOTZ, Circuit Judge,
concurring in the judgment:
I agree that the sentence in this case must be vacated and the case remanded for resentencing. I write separately to emphasize that, given the substantial, albeit not unchecked, discretion federal district-courts enjoy after United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005), they can take into account state sentencing practice in certain cases.
Federal law instructs district courts to consider “the need to avoid unwarranted sentence disparities among defendants with similar records who have been found guilty of similar conduct.” 18 U.S.C.A. § 3553(a)(6) (West 2000). It seems to me that the fairest reading of this mandate, albeit not the only plausible reading, see, e.g., United States v. Lucania, 379 F.Supp.2d 288, 296-97 (E.D.N.Y.2005), is that it generally bars federal courts from basing a sentence on consideration of state sentences. Congress established a Sentencing Commission and authorized detailed sentencing guidelines at least in part to eliminate unwarranted disparities in sentences among federal defendants. Permitting federal courts to consider an individual state’s sentence for an analogous state crime would often cause disparities among federal defendants convicted of the same crimes. Accordingly, in the usual case federal courts should not consider state practice in imposing sentences.
There are, however, some cases in which consideration of state sentences will not conflict with § 3553(a)(6)’s mandate to “avoid unwarranted sentence disparities” and may in fact help courts to apply correctly the other factors set forth in § 3553(a). One example is when a federal criminal statute incorporates state law. See, e.g., 18 U.S.C.A. § 13(a) (West 2000) (assimilating state criminal law for land within federal jurisdiction); 18 U.S.C.A. § 1960(b)(1)(A) (West 2000) (defining the federal crime of operating “an unlicensed money transmitting business” as, inter alia, operating “without an appropriate money transmitting license in a State where such operation is punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony under State law”).
When the effect and reach of a federal statute depend on state law, consideration of the sentence mandated by state law seems entirely appropriate. We must not lose sight of the fact that avoidance of “unwarranted sentence disparities” is not *689the only command of § 3553(a). In that statute Congress also directs courts to assign sentences that “reflect the seriousness of the offense,” “promote respect for the law,” “provide just punishment,” and “afford adequate deterrence to criminal conduct.” 18 U.S.C.A. § 3553(a). Federal courts may well have difficulty evaluating the “seriousness” of a crime defined by state law without looking to see how the state punishes that behavior.
Section 3553(a)(6) does not, and should not, prohibit a district court from exercising its discretion to consider state sentences in cases in which Congress itself has decided that state law determines whether the activity at issue is punishable as a federal offense. Concerns about disparities among federal defendants are necessarily lessened in such cases because federal law intentionally incorporates variations in state law. It would be unreasonable to hold in such cases that a federal court may not consider state sentencing practice.
In sum, § 3553(a)’s broad language indicates that district courts enjoy significant discretion in sentencing, provided, of course, that they devise reasonable sentences. Application of the § 3553(a) factors is neither a mechanical nor an automatic process — some factors may weigh more heavily than others depending on the facts of an individual case. Although the sentence in this case did not comply with § 3553(a), we should not interpret § 3553(a)(6) so narrowly as to curtail a district court’s discretion to strike a fair balance among the § 3553(a) factors. This discretion includes the ability, in a proper case, to consider state sentencing practice in this balance.