Court Opinion

ID: 9492059
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 14:31:12.132887+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:55:05.297687
License: Public Domain

SLOVITER, Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I join in Parts I through IV of the opinion. I also concur in Part V, but note that I would ordinarily agree with the government with respect to the nine-level upward departure. The District Court’s decision to depart is entitled to great deference. As the Court stated in Koon v. United States, 518 U.S. 81, 116 S.Ct. 2035, 135 L.Ed.2d 392 (1996), “[a] district court’s decision to depart from the Guidelines ... will in most cases be due substantial deference, for it embodies the traditional exercise of discretion by a sentencing court.” Id. at 98, 116 S.Ct. 2035. See also United States v. Kikumura, 918 F.2d 1084, 1110 (3d Cir.1990). However, here the majority has raised an issue as to the relationship between the Guideline governing first-degree murder and that governing second-degree murder that fairly requires some further attention by the District Court. Therefore, I concur with its decision to remand, as long as it is understood that the District Court retains the discretion to depart upwards nine levels again should it fully explain why it determined to do so.