United States v. Gaspar-Felipe

UPDATE: In January 2022, the Supreme Court denied our petition for certiorari. The MacArthur Justice Center continues to fight against the unconstitutional practice of sentencing defendants based on acquitted conduct.

Esteban Gaspar-Felipe was tried before a jury on charges of illegally reentering the United States and for “transportation of illegal aliens.” The jury convicted him of those counts. But the prosecution also charged him with an enhancement for criminal conduct resulting in death, even though the death in question was at the hands of police officers who pursued some of the aliens nearly 50 miles away from Mr. Gaspar-Felipe. The jury acquitted Mr. Gaspar-Felipe of that enhancement. Yet a judge nonetheless sentenced Mr. Gaspar-Felipe as if the jury had convicted him of causing the death, more than doubling Mr. Gaspar-Felipe’s time in prison.

Tell any lay person that Mr. Osby is serving time for charges of which a jury acquitted him and they’d be aghast. Federal judges around the country—including three justices of the current Supreme Court—have expressed similar dismay. And rightly so. Sentencing based on acquitted conduct is at odds with this Court’s Fifth and Sixth Amendment case law and the Founding-era understanding of a jury’s role. And sentencing based on acquitted conduct slips yet another ace into a deck already stacked against criminal defendants.

The MacArthur Justice Center, in collaboration with defense attorneys Stephanie Milliron and Damian Castillo, Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the Cato Institute, and others, asks the Supreme Court to condemn that unconstitutional practice.