U.S. v. Caraballo
| Decision Date | 03 May 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 05-2361.,05-2361. |
| Citation | 447 F.3d 26 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Luis CARABALLO, Defendant, Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit |
Bjorn Lange, Assistant Federal Public Defender, on brief for the defendant, appellant.
Mark E. Howard, Assistant United States Attorney, and Thomas P. Colantuono, United States Attorney, on brief for the appellee.
Before SELYA, Circuit Judge, Campbell, Senior Circuit Judge, and LIPEZ, Circuit Judge.
After pleading guilty to two counts of possessing and distributing crack cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), defendant Luis Caraballo was sentenced, under United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005), to nine years' imprisonment, three and a half years below the bottom of the advisory guidelines range. In this appeal, Caraballo challenges the nine-year sentence as unreasonably high because various mitigating circumstances — including, primarily, his multiple serious medical problems — make the sentence longer than necessary to serve the purposes of sentencing set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). We review the sentence for unreasonableness, Booker, 543 U.S. at 260-61, 125 S.Ct. 738, under the standards set forth in United States v. Jiménez-Beltre, 440 F.3d 514, 519 (1st Cir. 2006) (en banc).
Caraballo's challenge to his sentence rests primarily on his contention that the district court gave insufficient weight to his medical impairments, particularly the deterioration of both hips, which causes him considerable pain and impairs his mobility. According to Caraballo, this medical condition makes him less likely to commit future crimes, particularly violent ones; makes him less able to cope with prison life; clouds any hope for a productive life after release from prison; and could best be treated, after release, by the Veterans Administration, rather than by the Bureau of Prisons.
In fact, the district court afforded considerable weight to Caraballo's medical condition, which it characterized as "obviously a serious situation." Indeed, that condition was the court's primary rationale for imposing a sentence below the guideline sentencing range. (The other rationale was the relatively routine, street-level nature of the offenses of conviction.) However, the district court felt that other statutory factors-including the "public['s] need[] to be protected from [Caraballo's] demonstrably violent personality," see 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(2)(C), and the need to account for his "terrible . . . violent record,"1 see id. § 3553(a)(1) — warranted "a substantial sentence . . . beyond that which one would obtain for this type of small drug deal." In reaching that conclusion, the judge expressed skepticism that Caraballo's medical condition, while serious, would prevent him from continuing his lifelong pattern of domestic violence and implicitly discredited Caraballo's argument that his forced sobriety, while incarcerated, would cure the lifetime alcohol abuse that triggered his violent conduct in the past. Accordingly, rather than impose a sentence within the guideline sentencing range of 151 to 188 months (approximately 12½ to 15½ years), the district court imposed a lesser, but still substantial, sentence of 9 years, which it believed adequate to punish Caraballo for his conduct while still giving him hope that he can be a productive citizen when released. That determination was not unreasonable.
Caraballo's remaining argument focuses on the application of the career offender guideline, USSG § 4B1.1, which largely accounted for his guideline sentencing range of 151 to 188 months. Caraballo does not dispute that the career offender guideline was properly calculated and applied, given his prior record of at least two "felony" convictions for violent crimes, as the term "felony" is defined in the guidelines. See id. § 4B1.2, comment. (n.1)...
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U.S. v. Martin
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...but reflected an existing medical condition (primarily the deterioration of his hips). See 552 F.3d at 11; United States v. Caraballo, 447 F.3d 26, 26-27 (1st Cir.2006) (per curiam), cert. denied, 549 U.S. 928, 127 S.Ct. 298, 166 L.Ed.2d 226 (2006). Under these circumstances, we held that t......
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U.S. v. Caraballo
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