U.S. v. Scroggins

• Decision Date: 31 July 1989
• Docket Number: No. 88-8218,88-8218
• Citation: 880 F.2d 1204
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Samuel SCROGGINS, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

Page 1204

880 F.2d 1204

58 USLW 2175

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Samuel SCROGGINS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 88-8218.

United States Court of Appeals Eleventh Circuit.

July 31, 1989.

Sheila Tyler, Asst. Federal Public Defender, Atlanta, Ga., for defendant-appellant.

F. Gentry Shelnutt, Jr., Asst. U.S. Atty., Julie Carnes, Asst. U.S. Atty., Atlanta, Ga., for plaintiff-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.

Before TJOFLAT and CLARK, Circuit Judges, and ACKER ^*, District Judge.

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:

I.

In November 1987, inspectors in the United States Postal Service began to investigate a number of instances in which self-service stamp vending machines had been forced open and their funds removed. During the course of the investigation, postal inspectors placed surveillance cameras at various post offices. On December 16, 1987, one of these cameras recorded Samuel Scroggins prying open and removing the funds inside a stamp vending machine located in Jonesboro, Georgia. Scroggins was subsequently arrested and agreed to talk with law enforcement officials after viewing the surveillance videotape and being advised of his rights. In the course of this interview, Scroggins voluntarily provided information concerning eighteen other postal stamp vending machine thefts that he and a number of accomplices had successfully committed during the months of November and December 1987.

In reliance on this information, a grand jury indicted Scroggins on January 13, 1988 for breaking into postal stamp vending machines and stealing their contents in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 641 (1982). ¹ The indictment contained two counts: the first charged Scroggins with thefts occurring between November 20 and December 15, 1987; the second charged Scroggins and an accomplice with the video-taped theft that occurred on December 16, 1987. ² Pursuant to a plea agreement, the prosecutor dropped the charges against Scroggins contained in count one of the indictment, and the court accepted Scroggins' guilty plea as to count two. See Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(e)(1)(A).

Applying the guidelines promulgated by the United States Sentencing Commission, the district court sentenced Scroggins to a twelve-month term of imprisonment and a two-year term of supervised release (to be served after his release from prison). ³ See 18 U.S.C.A. Sec. 3582 (West 1985 & Supp.1989) (sentence of imprisonment); id. Sec. 3583 (term of supervised release). In addition, the court ordered Scroggins to pay restitution to the United States in the amount of $11,000 to compensate for the loss that resulted from his thefts. ⁴ Scroggins

now appeals, contending that the district court incorrectly applied the guidelines in fashioning his sentence. See id. Sec. 3742(a)(2). ⁵

II.

In order to understand the guideline sentencing process, one must understand the historical and jurisprudential backdrop against which the guidelines are set. We therefore begin by discussing the development of sentencing in the United States and the sentencing theory that the guidelines embody. We then proceed to a general overview of the mechanics of guideline sentencing.

A.

Prior to the American Revolution, colonial courts fashioned sentences with three basic purposes in mind: to punish the offender for his crime, thereby satisfying society's desire for retribution ("punishment"); to deter others from committing the same crime by demonstrating its disadvantageous consequences ("general deterrence"); and to incapacitate the wrongdoer, so as to protect society from further criminal activity ("specific deterrence" or "incapacitation"). Felonies generally were punished by death; the penalty for misdemeanors ranged from being pilloried or flogged to a term of hard labor. Significantly, incarceration was not a sentencing option: the colonists accepted the prevailing belief in the basic depravity of humanity, "a feeling that made any notion of an offender's possible rehabilitation absurd." A. Campbell, The Law of Sentencing Sec. 2, at 9 (1978) (footnote omitted).

The Revolutionary War brought with it two significant developments in sentencing theory. The first of these was the idea that certainty of punishment was a more effective deterrent to criminal conduct than severity of punishment. The second was a belief that people were rational beings, and that with proper treatment an offender could be "cured" of his "moral disease." Together, these ideas began to bring about an abolition of the harsh physical punishments previously inflicted on wrongdoers. In place of these penalties, the courts sentenced offenders to a term of confinement in a penitentiary. In these facilities, offenders were subjected to a rigorous program of hard work and moral training in hopes of correcting their criminal tendencies. See id. Sec. 2. Thus, rehabilitation for the first time became an accepted goal of the sentencing process.

Beginning in the late 1800s, penological experts became dissatisfied with the sentencing system's approach to rehabilitation. They noted that in fashioning an offender's sentence, the courts generally focused on Beginning in the 1960s, courts and penological experts began to doubt the efficacy of medical model sentencing. ⁸ These concerns eventually came to the attention of the Congress, which initiated an extensive investigation into the state of the federal sentencing system. In 1984, this investigation concluded that the premise underlying medical model sentencing was impracticable: "We know too little about human behavior to be able to rehabilitate individuals on a routine basis or even to determine accurately whether or when a particular prisoner has been rehabilitated." S.Rep. No. 225, 98th Cong., 2d Sess. 40, reprinted in 1984 U.S.Code Cong. & Admin.News 3182, 3223. Accordingly, Congress passed the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, Pub.L. No. 98-473, Sec. 211, 98 Stat.1987 (codified, as amended, in scattered sections of 18 and 28 U.S.C.), which abolished medical model sentencing In the place of the medical model sentencing process, the Sentencing Reform Act creates a new system of sentencing based on a determinate sentencing model. Under this model, offenders are sentenced to a determinate term of incarceration. This term of incarceration is imposed to punish and to deter the offender and others from engaging in criminal conduct--not to rehabilitate the offender. See 28 U.S.C.A. Sec. 994(k) (West Supp.1989) ("The Commission shall insure that the guidelines reflect the inappropriateness of imposing a sentence to a term of imprisonment for the purpose of rehabilitating the defendant or providing the defendant with needed educational or vocational training, medical care, or other correctional treatment."). As a result, the offender must serve the full length of his term--parole and the United States Parole Commission are abolished. ⁹ Sentencing under the determinate model therefore is designed primarily to achieve three goals: punishment, general deterrence, and incapacitation. ¹⁰ To effect these goals, Congress created the United States Sentencing Commission and directed it to promulgate sentencing guidelines for "each category of offense" in the federal criminal code and for "each category of defendant." See id. Sec. 994(b)(1). These guidelines are the centerpiece of the determinate sentencing system.

                the seriousness of the defendant's offense, not on the offender's rehabilitative potential.  This criticism eventually brought about the adoption of a "medical" sentencing model. 6   Under this model, the court sentences an offender to an indeterminate term of imprisonment, establishing only the maximum length of the offender's sentence. 7   The actual length of the term is determined by a parole board, which monitors the offender's rehabilitative progress.  When it decides that the offender is fully rehabilitated, the board releases the offender on parole.  Thus, rehabilitation is the dominant goal of the medical model;  punishment, general deterrence, and incapacitation are achieved only incidentally to the offender's rehabilitative incarceration
                in the federal criminal justice system
                

B.

The guidelines focus first on the offense, classifying federal crimes into offense categories for sentencing purposes. For example, the sentence for any of the approximately 130 different theft offenses contained in the United States Code is governed by Sentencing Guidelines Sec. 2B1.1 ("Larceny, Embezzlement, and Other Forms of Theft"). These offense categories evaluate the seriousness of the offense, taking into account:

(1) the grade of the offense;

(2) the circumstances under which the offense was committed which mitigate or aggravate the seriousness of the offense;

(3) the nature and degree of the harm caused by the offense, including whether it involved property, irreplaceable property, a person, a number of persons, or a breach of public trust;

(4) the community view of the gravity of the offense;

(5) the public concern generated by the offense;

(6) the deterrent effect a particular sentence may have on the commission of the offense by others; and

(7) the current incidence of the offense in the community and in the Nation as a whole.

28 U.S.C.A. Sec. 994(c) (West Supp.1989). The guidelines therefore first concentrate on ensuring that the offender will receive a just punishment for his crime and that the offender's punishment will adequately deter others from committing his crime.

The guidelines focus second on the offender--specifically on the offender's criminal history. The Sentencing Commission has noted that A defendant's record of past criminal conduct is directly relevant to [sentencing] purposes. A defendant with a record of prior criminal behavior is more culpable than a first offender and thus deserving of greater punishment. General deterrence of criminal conduct dictates that a clear message be sent to...