United States v. Leon Brady

928 F.2d 844, 91 Daily Journal DAR 3087, 91 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 1845, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 4187, 1991 WL 34691
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMarch 18, 1991
Docket89-30074
StatusPublished
Cited by202 cases

This text of 928 F.2d 844 (United States v. Leon Brady) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth 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. Leon Brady, 928 F.2d 844, 91 Daily Journal DAR 3087, 91 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 1845, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 4187, 1991 WL 34691 (9th Cir. 1991).

Opinions

PREGERSON, Circuit Judge:

Leon Brady was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and assault with a dangerous weapon. He appeals the legality of his sentence, contending that its terms imper-missibly depart from the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. We conclude that the sentence imposed is incompatible with the Guidelines. We therefore vacate the sentence and remand this matter for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

BACKGROUND

Charles Brady, an enrolled member of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Tribe, was indicted in July 1988 for first degree murder and assault with intent to commit murder of two other tribal members on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. Following trial, the jury convicted Brady not on these charged counts, but on the lesser included offenses of voluntary man[846]*846slaughter and assault with a dangerous weapon.

In February 1989, the U.S. Probation Officer submitted to the court the required presentence report. The report calculated the total offense level at 24 (including a two-level reduction in offense severity because Brady accepted responsibility for the offenses). The report also set Brady’s criminal history category at “I.” 1 Under these calculations, the applicable sentencing guideline range indicated a sentence of 51 to 63 months.

The presentence report, however, noted that an upward departure from this range may be appropriate on the basis of Brady’s tribal court convictions on two misdemean- or assault charges. The report suggested that without consideration of these tribal offenses, Brady’s criminal history category “does not adequately represent the seriousness of his criminal past.” The report stated that if the history category were raised to “II” on this basis, the guideline range would be 57 to 71 months, and if the category were raised to “III,” the range would be 63 to 78 months.

At the sentencing hearing, the district court sentenced Brady to a total of 180 months (15 years) of imprisonment for the two offenses. In increasing the sentence well beyond the range recommended in the presentence report, the court challenged the probation officer’s calculations and found cause for departing upward from the Guidelines. First, the judge did not believe that Brady had accepted responsibility for the committed offenses, and therefore denied the two-level reduction in the total offense level. Second, the judge felt that criminal history category “I” did not adequately reflect the seriousness of Brady’s criminal history because the tribal court convictions were not taken into account. Third, as justification for an upward departure from the Guidelines, the judge referred to the fact that a firearm had been discharged when the offenses were committed. Fourth, the judge departed from the Guidelines based on the defendant’s “state of mind” during commission of the offenses. Finally, the judge indicated that the sentences should run consecutively, not concurrently, thus aggregating the maximum five year sentence for assault with a dangerous weapon with the maximum ten year sentence for voluntary manslaughter.

Brady contends that under the Guidelines none of these bases for sentence enhancement is permissible. He argues that he accepted responsibility for the crimes for which he was convicted; that serious constitutional problems are involved in relying on minor, uncounseled tribal convictions to depart upward from the Guidelines; that the sentence had been unjustifiably enhanced on the basis of the firearm discharge; that the district court erred in departing upward by finding that Brady acted with the specific intent to kill both victims, despite the fact that the jury acquitted Brady of first degree murder and assault with intent to commit murder; and that the decision to run the sentences consecutively, rather than concurrently, violated the procedure mandated by the Guidelines.

DISCUSSION

I. Notice of Disputed Elements Before we consider whether the sentencing court properly deviated from the sentencing range recommended in the presen-tence report, we first address the issue of notice of the factors the court may consider in deciding whether to depart from the Sentencing Guidelines. The Guidelines require that “[wjhen any factor important to the sentencing determination is reasonably in dispute, the parties shall be given an adequate opportunity to present information to the court regarding that factor.” United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual [hereinafter U.S.S.G.] § 6A1.3(a), p.s. The Guidelines further state that

[t]he court shall resolve disputed sentencing factors in accordance with Rule 32(a)(1), Fed.R.Crim.P____, notify the par[847]*847ties of its tentative findings and provide a reasonable opportunity for the submission of oral or written objections before imposition of sentence.

U.S.S.G. § 6A1.3(b), p.s.2

The presentence report stated only one ground for possible upward departure — the use of Brady’s tribal court convictions to increase his criminal history category. Brady contends that he was not notified before the sentencing hearing of several other factors relied on by the sentencing court to depart from the Guidelines. Brady argues that, because he was not given notice of these factors, they may not be used to enhance the sentence beyond the range stated in the presentence report. We agree. In United States v. Nuno-Para, 877 F.2d 1409 (9th Cir.1989), we held that the notice

requirement is not satisfied by the fact that the relevant information is present within the presentence report. Rather, such information either must be identified as a basis for departure in the presentence report, or, the court must advise the defendant that it is considering departure based on a particular factor and allow defense counsel an opportunity to comment.

Id. at 1415 (citations omitted) (emphasis added).

The government contends that notice should not be required in Brady’s case because “a full trial was had, and all parties knew exactly what the positions of the respective parties were.... There was no way that the defendant can claim to be surprised by any ruling by the court [on sentencing].” But in United States v. Raf-ferty, 911 F.2d 227, 230 (9th Cir.1990), we rejected the contention that the notice requirement does not apply if the ground for departure should have been readily apparent to the defendant. Thus Brady should have been notified before sentencing that the court intended (1) to deny him the acceptance of responsibility reduction,3 (2) to depart from the Guidelines based on the court’s determination of Brady’s state of mind, (3) to enhance the sentence based on the firearm discharge, and (4) to run the sentences consecutively rather than concurrently. Only the acceptance of responsibility issue presents disputed facts that should be resolved at an evidentiary hearing on remand. The trial court will of course be bound by our rulings on disputed legal questions in determining the proper sentence on remand.

II. Acceptance of Responsibility

The Guidelines allow a two-level reduction in the defendant’s total offense level if the “defendant clearly demonstrates a recognition and affirmative acceptance of personal responsibility for his criminal conduct.” U.S.S.G.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State of Iowa v. Archaletta Latrice Young
863 N.W.2d 249 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 2015)
United States v. Coughlin
821 F. Supp. 2d 8 (District of Columbia, 2011)
United States v. Vernon Lee Bad Marriage, Jr.
392 F.3d 1103 (Ninth Circuit, 2004)
United States v. Lorenzo J. Baylor
97 F.3d 542 (D.C. Circuit, 1997)
United States v. Watts
519 U.S. 148 (Supreme Court, 1997)
People v. Justice
550 N.W.2d 562 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1996)
United States v. Joshua William Sanders
41 F.3d 480 (Ninth Circuit, 1994)
United States v. Nelson Frias
39 F.3d 391 (Second Circuit, 1994)
United States v. Kelly J. Jackson
32 F.3d 1101 (Seventh Circuit, 1994)
United States v. MacArio Duran
15 F.3d 131 (Ninth Circuit, 1994)
United States v. David Kevin Cox
7 F.3d 1458 (Ninth Circuit, 1993)
United States v. Peter Chui Lin Wong
2 F.3d 927 (Ninth Circuit, 1993)
United States v. Arias-Villanueva
998 F.2d 1491 (Ninth Circuit, 1993)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
928 F.2d 844, 91 Daily Journal DAR 3087, 91 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 1845, 1991 U.S. App. LEXIS 4187, 1991 WL 34691, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-leon-brady-ca9-1991.