United States v. Bare

Defendant, a non-Indian who lives on tribal land with his common-law wife, was convicted of two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The district court applied a 4-level sentencing enhancement for defendant's use of a firearm in connection with another felony offense, as well as his condition of supervised release permitting searches of his computers and other electronic devices by a U.S. Probation Officer. The court held that due to the Assimilative Crimes Ac (ACA), 18 U.S.C. 13, 1152, it does not matter whether the requisite felony offense occurred on tribal lands or within the state’s jurisdiction in order to apply an enhancement for discharging a firearm under U.S.S.G. 2K2.1(b)(6)(B); so long as a district court makes a properly supported factual finding from the record before it, establishing some nexus between computer use and the need for the sentence imposed to accomplish deterrence, protection of the public, or rehabilitation of the defendant, it is not an abuse of discretion for the district court to impose a condition of supervised release permitting the search of a defendant’s personal computers; and the court affirmed the judgment because the district court made such a permissible factual finding establishing nexus in this case, and because defendant is subject to punishment for committing the felony offense of disorderly conduct involving weapons in connection with his felon in possession conviction. View "United States v. Bare" on Justia Law