United States v. White

741 F. Supp. 1200, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9942, 1990 WL 112420
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. North Carolina
DecidedJuly 26, 1990
DocketNo. 90-30-01-CR-3
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 741 F. Supp. 1200 (United States v. White) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. White, 741 F. Supp. 1200, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9942, 1990 WL 112420 (E.D.N.C. 1990).

Opinion

[1201]*1201ORDER

This matter is before the court on motion in limine by defendant to determine the applicability of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines to the assimilated crimes with which he is charged.

Defendant is charged in a six-count indictment with one felony charge, involuntary manslaughter, and five misdemeanors and petty offenses. All of the offenses arise out of the same occurrence on the Fort Bragg Military Reservation located in this district. The manslaughter is a federal felony under 18 U.S.C. § 1112, and the other five offenses, driving while impaired, driving while license revoked, driving left of center, reckless driving and speeding, are all North Carolina statutory crimes made applicable here under the Assimila-tive Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. § 13. Defendant contends that the Federal Sentencing Guidelines do not apply to those charges under the Assimilative Crimes Act.

This question has been addressed in this district by United States Magistrate Wallace W. Dixon who, in an order entered on 11 July 1989, held that the Sentencing Guidelines do not apply to assimilated crimes. Being persuaded by Magistrate Dixon’s reasoning and unable to improve on the content of his order, much of it is reproduced below and adopted herein.

“The Assimilative Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. § 13 reads as follows:

Whoever within or upon any of the places now existing or hereafter reserved or acquired as provided in section 7 of this title [18 U.S.C.S. § 7], 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.

It is generally recognized that the ACA serves to provide a set of criminal laws for federal enclaves by utilizing the laws of the surrounding state to fill-in gaps in the fed-United States v. Kaufman, 862 F.2d 236, 237 (9th Cir.1988); United States v. Sain, 795 F.2d 888, 890 (10th Cir.1986); United States v. Brown, 608 F.2d 551, 553 (5th Cir.1979); United States v. Best, 573 F.2d 1095, 1098 (9th Cir.1978). The ACA acts to transform a state law crime into a federal crime. United States v. Kiliz, 694 F.2d 628, 629 (9th Cir.1982). A state criminal law is not assimilated, however, if the precise conduct in question has already been made penal by federal law. In such a situation, there is then no gap in federal law for the state statute to fill. United States v. Kaufman, supra, 862 F.2d at 237. eral criminal law.

“It has traditionally been recognized that the punishment for an assimilated crime is determined by reference to the state law that originally provided for the offense in question. United States v. Vaughan, 682 F.2d 290, 294 (2nd Cir.1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 946, 103 S.Ct. 261 [74 L.Ed.2d 203] (1982); see also United States v. Bosser, 866 F.2d 315, 318 (9th Cir.1989) (underlying purpose of the ACA is to enforce the same crimes and to inflict the same punishments that individuals would receive in analogous state proceedings). Indeed, as the Supreme . Court stated in United States v. Press Publishing Company, 219 U.S. 1, 31 S.Ct. 212, 55 L.Ed. 65 (1911), when speaking of the precedessor [sic] to 18. U.S.C. § 13:

When these results of the statute are borne in mind, it becomes manifest that Congress, in adopting it, sedulously considered the twofold character of our constitutional government, and had in view the enlightened purpose, so far as the punishment of crime was concerned, to interfere as little as might be with the authority of the states on that subject over all territory situated within their exterior boundaries, and which hence would be subject to exclusive state jurisdiction but for the existence of a United States reservation. In accomplishing these purposes it is apparent that the statute, instead of fixing by its own terms the punishment for crimes committed on such reservations which were not [1202]*1202previously provided for by a law of the United States, adopted and wrote in the state law, with the single difference that the offense, although punished as an offense against the United States was nevertheless punishable only in the way and to the extent that it would have been punishable if the territory embraced by the reservation remained subject to the jurisdiction of the state.

219 U.S. at 9-10, 31 S.Ct. at 214. In United States v. Sharpnack, 355 U.S. 286, 78 S.Ct. 291, 2 L.Ed.2d 282 (1958), the Court recognized that Congress utilized the ACA to provide that within each federal enclave ‘to the extent that offenses are not preempted by congressional enactments, there shall be complete current conformity with the criminal laws of the respective states in which the enclaves are situated.’ 355 U.S. at 293, 78 S.Ct. at 295.

“The Fourth Circuit has been firm on the point that the state law which provides the definition of the offense also must be looked to in determining the applicable punishment. In United States v. Robinson, 495 F.2d 30 (4th Cir.1974), the defendant while at Washington National Airport, was charged with disorderly conduct in violation of airport regulations. The regulation in question stated that it was issued under the authority of the District of Columbia Code. The regulation, however, stated that pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 13, certain parts of the criminal laws of Virginia would be enforced at the airport. 495 F.2d at 33. These laws related to disorderly conduct, gambling, obscene literature, and drunkeness [sic]. Id. In reversing the conviction, the Fourth Circuit noted:

While the Administrator properly referred to the D.C. Code as his authority to promulgate all of the regulations in Part 159, we are at a loss to understand his purported use of the Assimilative Crimes Act of 1948 in Section 159.71. Whether he intended to incorporate the pertinent Virginia criminal statutes by the general references in the regulation or was attempting some form of ‘selective assimilation’ under 18 U.S.C. § 13 is not at all clear.

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Bluebook (online)
741 F. Supp. 1200, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9942, 1990 WL 112420, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-white-nced-1990.