Court Opinion

ID: 9486217
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:41:11.365301+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:35.138671
License: Public Domain

HEANEY, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring and dissenting.
I reluctantly concur in the court’s construction of the applicable guidelines, but I dissent from the court’s, directions on resen-tencing. Although I feel that this is but another unnecessary restriction of the sentencing judge’s discretion, the majority’s interpretation of the guideline and its background note is sound. As Judge Newman has indicated and as our court indicates today, the guidelines as presently written leave “the sentencing judge ... only the choice of a three-level enhancement or no enhancement.” United States v. Cotto, 979 F.2d 921, 923 (2d Cir.1992).
*780This reduction in judicial discretion is particularly unfortunate because it only further shifts discretion to the prosecution. The enhancement in this case was recommended by the probation officer, but as I have discussed elsewhere, the probation officer makes no independent investigation (beyond interviewing the offender) and therefore relies almost solely ón whatever the prosecutor sends over. The prosecutor may or may not choose to push for the enhancement, and her decision is virtually unreviewable. Greater discretion on the part of the sentencing judge, whose discretion is reviewable, would provide greater fairness in the sentencing process.
But not all discretion has been removed. District courts in future cases must choose between a three-level enhancement and no enhancement. Judge Newman states that “[a] judge should be rather confident that such an enhancement is warranted before including it in a sentencing decision,” id., and • I agree. The sentencing court in this case should, as Kirkeby has asked, be given an opportunity to reexamine the question of whether an enhancement applies. Although the court found that a two-level enhancement applied, it explicitly did not find that' a three-level enhancement was appropriate. The court should be given that choice again in light of our construction of the applicable guidelines. I simply cannot understand this reluctance to trust the district court on remand, and I therefore dissent from the court’s direction that the sentencing court choose between a three- or four-level enhancement on remand rather than a zero- or three-level enhancement.