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Wife's Suicide Supports Felon-in-Possession Enhancement

By Shari Allison

United States v. Montgomery, ___ F.3d ___, 2008 WL 5401410 (10th Cir. 2008)Upward departure for death under USSG Sec. 5K2.1 is not limited to homicide deaths and can apply as a matter of law to a resulting suicide?in this case, D?s wife committed suicide with a gun he illegally possessed as a felon. For 5K2.1 to apply, the death must be a reasonably foreseeable result of the crime of conviction. In this case, there was evidence that D knew of his wife?s depression, and that his escalating emotional and physical abuse of her exacerbated her depressed mental state. There need not be proof that he actually knew his wife would commit suicide.

Full post as published by Tenth Circuit Blog on January 05, 2009 (boomark / email).