United States v. Larry G. Thomas

68 F.3d 392, 1995 U.S. App. LEXIS 29223, 1995 WL 607023
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedOctober 17, 1995
Docket94-3280
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 68 F.3d 392 (United States v. Larry G. Thomas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Larry G. Thomas, 68 F.3d 392, 1995 U.S. App. LEXIS 29223, 1995 WL 607023 (10th Cir. 1995).

Opinion

LOGAN, Circuit Judge.

This direct criminal appeal involves the interplay between the Assimilative Crimes Act (ACA), 18 U.S.C. § 13, requiring the application of state law, and the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984. The case arises in the context of punishment for a misdemeanor when the state law and the federal sentencing guidelines treat home detention differently-

In April 1992 defendant Larry G. Thomas pleaded guilty to a charge of driving under the influence (DUI), in violation of Kan.Stat. Ann. § 8-1567 as charged under the ACA. He committed the offense, a Class B misdemeanor, on the Fort Leavenworth (Kansas) military reservation. The magistrate judge sentenced him to probation with payment of a fine, performance of public service, and other conditions. In March 1993, however, the magistrate judge determined that defendant had violated the terms of his probation and extended probation for one year. This resentencing also included a six-month period of home detention with electronic monitoring. Although defendant successfully completed the home detention, he violated probation a second time. Therefore, in January 1994 the magistrate judge extended the probationary period for another six months and ordered defendant to perform additional hours of public service.

Defendant then violated the terms of his probation a third time, after which the magistrate judge revoked probation and sentenced him to a ninety-day period of incarceration. Defendant appealed to the district court under Fed.R.Crim.P. 58(g)(2), arguing that because he completed six months in home detention that he had already served the six-month statutory maximum sentence permitted under the Kansas statute. He argued that the federal sentencing guidelines credit home detention as incarceration and thus the magistrate judge imposed an illegal sentence.

The district court affirmed the magistrate judge on alternative grounds. It held that 18 U.S.C. § 3585(b) gives the Bureau of Prisons primary authority to calculate sentencing credit and defendant therefore must exhaust his remedies with the Bureau of Prisons before seeking judicial review. Alternatively, the district court determined that if it did have jurisdiction defendant was not entitled to credit because Kansas law does not treat home detention as incarceration.

We are satisfied that if defendant has already served the statutory maximum term of incarceration under the applicable sentencing scheme, additional incarceration would constitute an illegal sentence. This court has jurisdiction to review illegal sentences. United States v. Saucedo, 950 F.2d 1508, 1516-17 (10th Cir.1991) (citing United States v. Morgan, 346 U.S. 502, 506, 74 S.Ct. 247, 250, 98 L.Ed. 248 (1954)). It follows that on review of the magistrate judge’s decision the district court had jurisdiction to determine whether the six months home detention defendant served constituted imprisonment that would foreclose the additional incarceration ordered by the magistrate judge. We turn to that issue.

In arguing that his sentence is illegal defendant points to 18 U.S.C. § 3551 and its requirement that sentences be in accordance with “this chapter.” Section 3551(a) reads as follows:

(a). In general. Except as otherwise specifically provided, a defendant who has been found guilty of an offense described in any Federal Statute, including sections 13 and 1153 of this title, other than an Act of Congress applicable exclusively in the District of Columbia or the Uniform Code of Military Justice, shall be sentenced in accordance with the provisions of this chapter so as to achieve the purposes set forth in subparagraphs (A) through (D) of section 3553(a)(2) to the extent that they are applicable in light of all the circumstances of the case.

(Emphasis added.) That “chapter” includes §§ 3563(b)(20) and 3583(e)(4) which permit home detention as an alternative to incarceration. Defendant also points to U.S.S.G. §§ 5F1.2 and 5B1.4(b)(20) which permit home detention as a condition of probation “but only as a substitute for imprisonment,” *394 and to U.S.S.G. § 501.1(e)(3) which equates one day of home detention to one day of imprisonment.

This case, however, involves the ACA. “The purpose of the Assimilative Crimes Act is to provide a method of punishing a crime committed on government reservations in the way and to the extent that it would have been punishable if committed within the surrounding jurisdiction.” United States v. Sain, 795 F.2d 888, 890 (10th Cir.1986). Defendant was charged under § 13(a) of the ACA, which reads:

(a) Whoever ... is guilty of any act or omission which, although not made punishable by any enactment of Congress, would be punishable if committed or omitted within the jurisdiction of the State, Territory, Possession, or District in which such place is situated, by the laws thereof in force at the time of such act or omission, shall be guilty of a like offense and subject to a like punishment.

18 U.S.C. § 13(a). Although the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, which provided the statutory framework for the sentencing guidelines, aimed to provide greater uniformity in federal sentencing, it did not initially reference the ACA. In 1990, however, Congress amended the Act to explicitly incorporate § 13, which is now referenced in 18 U.S.C. § 3551(a). Thus, the sentencing guidelines and the ACA are intended to coexist in a meaningful and effective fashion. See United States v. Harris, 27 F.3d 111, 115 (4th Cir.1994).

The sentencing guidelines and the ACA are not always easily reconciled. In United States v. Garcia, 893 F.2d 250 (10th Cir.1989), decided before the 1990 amendment, we stated that

In the case of assimilative crimes, it is difficult to achieve fully the Sentencing Reform Act’s goal of federal sentencing uniformity because the punishments for particular state offenses often vary significantly among the states. Therefore, it is not always possible to achieve uniformity in federal sentences for similar assimilative crimes that are committed in different states, and, at the same time, promote the Assimilative Crimes Act’s goal of intrastate sentencing uniformity.

Id. at 253.

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Bluebook (online)
68 F.3d 392, 1995 U.S. App. LEXIS 29223, 1995 WL 607023, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-larry-g-thomas-ca10-1995.