on Feb 6th, 2010What is the Purpose of Restitution in a Federal Criminal Case?
A recent Tenth Circuit case, United States v. Speakman, No. 08-1332 (Feb. 2, 2010), presents an interesting question in federal criminal practice: May a district court order a defendant to pay restitution for the purpose of punishment even if the payment does not compensate the victim? According to the Tenth Circuit, the answer is no. The ruling, which conflicts with at least one other decision, highlights ongoing disagreements about the scope and meaning of the federal restitution statute. And it raises a more philosophical question about the meaning of punishment itself.
In Speakman, the defendant pleaded guilty to wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343. The plea agreement stipulated that the defendant defrauded his ex-wife by forging her signature and transferring her funds to himself. The district court sentenced the defendant to a term of imprisonment and ordered restitution.
The district court’s restitution order had two components. First, the court ordered the defendant to pay a brokerage firm $1,225,000. That was the amount paid by the firm to the defendant’s ex-wife in an arbitration proceeding after the fraud was discovered. Second, the court ordered the defendant to pay $194,205.77 – the remainder resulting from the fraud as calculated by the court – to the Crime Victims Fund because defendant’s ex-wife had expressly declined to receive further restitution from the defendant. (The Crime Victims Fund is an entity created by Congress in 1984 to assist victims of crime. See http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/ovc.) The district court believed that the governing statute mandates an order of restitution even when the victim declines to receive compensation.
On appeal, the defendant challenged both components of the restitution order. First, he argued that the brokerage firm was not a “victim” within the meaning of the governing statute. The Tenth Circuit held that the record was unclear on that issue and remanded the case for further factual development. Second, the defendant argued that the court lacked authority to order payment to the Crime Victims Fund. The court of appeals agreed and reversed that portion of the restitution order.
As the Tenth Circuit stated, “‘[f]ederal courts possess no inherent authority to order restitution, and may only do so as explicitly empowered by statute.’” Slip op. at 20 (citation omitted). Although the governing statute permits a victim to assign an interest in restitution to the Crime Victims Fund, the victim in Speakman had not done that. Without an assignment, the Tenth Circuit held that the tangle of relevant federal statutory provisions does not permit restitution when the victim declines payment.
Unlike the Tenth Circuit, the Second Circuit has affirmed a district court’s order requiring a defendant to make restitution to the Crime Victims Fund without an assignment of interest by the victim. See United States v. Johnson, 378 F.3d 230, 244 (2d Cir. 2004). In Speakman, the Tenth Circuit explicitly disagreed with the Second Circuit’s construction of the governing statute. Slip op. at 24. More broadly, however, the Tenth Circuit identified a “deeper disagreement between our two courts about the nature of restitution.” Id. at 25. According to the Tenth Circuit, the federal statute governing restitution “does not inflict criminal punishment, and thus is not punitive.” Id. (citation omitted; emphasis in original). Thus, “[i]f the victim declines restitution but the court nevertheless orders the defendant to pay a sum of money to another entity, this punishes the defendant without in any way compensating the victim[,]” which the court held is improper. Id. The Second Circuit, in contrast, takes the position that “[r]estitution undoubtedly serves traditional purposes of punishment.” United States v. Brown, 744 F.2d 905, 909 (2d Cir. 1984).
The federal restitution statute is the subject of ongoing disputes. Just last month, for instance, the Supreme Court granted review in Dolan v. United States, No. 09-367, which presents the question whether a district court may enter a restitution order beyond the time limit prescribed by 18 U.S.C. § 3664(d)(5). Over the years, Congress has acted many times to modify the statutory framework with unsatisfactory results. Short of more careful congressional action, conflicts like the one identified in Speakman, and the uncertainty they engender, will persist, subject only to the policing that the Supreme Court may choose (or not choose) to perform.
