BYBEE, Circuit Judge:
Ashford Kaipo Spencer was convicted of two federal drug-trafficking felonies. At sentencing, the district court determined that Spencer was a "career offender" under § 4B1.1 of the Sentencing Guidelines because Spencer had two prior convictions for "crimes of violence," as defined in § 4B1.2(a). In making this determination, the district court applied the "categorical approach" to conclude that Spencer's prior conviction for criminal property damage in the first degree under § 708-820(1)(a) of the Hawaii Revised Statutes constituted a conviction for a "crime of violence."
On appeal, Spencer argues that the district court erred in sentencing him as a career offender because § 708-820(1)(a) is not a crime of violence as defined by the Sentencing Guidelines. In the alternative, Spencer argues that the "residual clause" of the definition of "crime of violence" contained in § 4B1.2(a)(2), which the district court concluded applied to him, is unconstitutionally vague.
We agree with the decision of the district court, and therefore hold that § 708-820(1)(a) is categorically a crime of violence under the residual clause of § 4B1.2(a)(2) of the Sentencing Guidelines.
In 2010, Spencer was convicted of two federal counts of felonious drug trafficking. The U.S. Probation Office originally recommended in its draft Presentence Investigation Report (PIR) that Spencer be treated as a "career offender" under § 4B1.1 of the Sentencing Guidelines, based on Spencer's two prior felony convictions for "crimes of violence" — (1) kidnaping and robbery in the second degree, and (2) criminal property damage in the first degree.
The only prior conviction at issue here is Spencer's conviction for criminal property damage in the first degree under § 708-820(1)(a) of the Hawaii Revised Statutes. Haw.Rev.Stat. § 708-820(1)(a) (1996).
Spencer objected to the categorization of his § 708-820(1)(a) criminal property conviction as a crime of violence. In response to Spencer's objections, the U.S. Probation Office revised its position in its final PIR, recommending that § 708-820(1)(a) not be classified as a crime of violence and that Spencer not be treated as a career offender. The district court, however, disagreed. At sentencing, the district court concluded that Spencer's § 708-820(1)(a) conviction for criminal property damage categorically constituted a crime of violence, as defined in § 4B1.2(a)(2) of the Sentencing Guidelines, and held that Spencer's prior convictions rendered him a "career offender" under § 4B1.1.
Applying the sentencing enhancement based on Spencer's status as a career offender, the district court determined that the sentencing range dictated by the Sentencing Guidelines was 360-480 months. Without the "career offender" finding, the Guidelines range would have been 151-188 months. The district court imposed a sentence of 204 months in prison, significantly below the Guidelines range given the "career offender" finding. Spencer timely appealed.
On appeal, Spencer argues that his § 708-820(1)(a) conviction was not a conviction for a crime of violence, and claims that he should not have been sentenced as a "career offender" under the Sentencing Guidelines. Spencer also argues that the residual clause of the definition of "crime of violence," contained in § 4B1.2(a)(2) of the Sentencing Guidelines, is unconstitutionally vague. We disagree.
As relevant here, the Sentencing Guidelines classify a defendant as a "career offender" if he "has at least two prior felony convictions of ... a crime of violence." U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1(a). Section 4B1.2(a) of the Sentencing Guidelines defines a "crime of violence" as:
U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a).
At the time of Spencer's conviction in 2001, Hawaii defined criminal property damage in the first degree as follows:
Haw.Rev.Stat. § 708-820(1)(a) (1996).
The district court held, and both parties agree, that Spencer's prior § 708-820(1)(a) conviction for criminal property damage in the first degree does not qualify as a conviction involving the "use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another" as required by § 4B1.2(a)(1), or as a conviction for one of specific offenses listed in § 4B1.2(a)(2): "burglary of a dwelling, arson, or extortion, [or a crime that] involves use of explosives." Thus, the question on appeal is whether Spencer's conviction under § 708-820(1)(a) qualifies as a conviction for a crime of violence under § 4B1.2(a)'s residual clause, which includes crimes that "otherwise involve[] conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another."
"We use the categorical approach... to determine whether a defendant's prior conviction satisfies the Guidelines definition of a crime of violence." United States v. Crews, 621 F.3d 849, 851 (9th Cir.2010). Under the categorical approach:
James v. United States, 550 U.S. 192, 202, 127 S.Ct. 1586, 167 L.Ed.2d 532 (2007) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). It is not "requir[ed] that every conceivable factual offense covered by a statute [of conviction] must necessarily" fit into the sentence-enhancing category; "[r]ather, the proper inquiry is whether the conduct encompassed by the elements of the offense [of conviction], in the ordinary case," fit into the sentence-enhancing category.
Based solely on the language of § 708-820(1)(a) and the residual clause in § 4B1.2(a)(2), "intentionally damag[ing] property and thereby recklessly plac[ing] another person in danger of death or bodily injury," Haw.Rev.Stat. § 708-820(1)(a) (1996), would seem, in the ordinary case, to "involve[ ] conduct that presents a serious
We set out the framework for analyzing whether a conviction under a state statute, such as § 708-820(1)(a), is a conviction for a "crime of violence" in United States v. Park, 649 F.3d 1175 (9th Cir.2011). For the conviction to constitute a conviction for a crime of violence, "[f]irst, the `conduct encompassed by the elements of the offense, in the ordinary case,' must `present[] a serious potential risk of physical injury to another,'" id. at 1177-78 (quoting James, 550 U.S. at 208, 127 S.Ct. 1586), and "[s]econd, the state offense must be `roughly similar, in kind as well as in degree of risk posed' to those offenses enumerated at the beginning of the residual clause — burglary of a dwelling, arson, extortion, and crimes involving explosives,'" id. at 1178 (quoting Begay, 553 U.S. at 143, 128 S.Ct. 1581).
The inquiry under Park's first prong is straightforward. But the second requirement — whether the state offense is "`roughly similar, in kind as well as in degree of risk posed' to those offenses enumerated at the beginning of the residual clause," id. at 1178 (quoting Begay, 553 U.S. at 143, 128 S.Ct. 1581) — is more complicated, and must be addressed in light of the Supreme Court's quartet of ACCA cases.
Beginning in James, the Court held that this second inquiry should focus on whether the risk posed by the state offense "is comparable to that posed by its closest analog among the enumerated offenses." James, 550 U.S. at 203, 127 S.Ct. 1586 (emphasis added). Under this test, the Court explained, "it would be sufficient to establish ... that the unenumerated offense presented at least as much risk as one of the enumerated offenses." Id. at 210, 127 S.Ct. 1586. But in Begay, the Court did not apply the "closest analog" test. See Begay, 553 U.S. at 148-49, 128 S.Ct. 1581
Although Begay and Chambers seem to suggest that the "purposeful, violent, and aggressive" test is dispositive as to the second requirement set forth in Park, the Court disparaged this reading in its most recent ACCA case, Sykes. In Sykes, the Court asserted that the dispositive inquiry is the level of risk posed by the prior conviction at issue as compared to the level of risk posed by the enumerated offenses. Sykes, 131 S.Ct. at 2275-76. The Court noted that "[i]n many cases the purposeful, violent, and aggressive inquiry will be redundant with the inquiry into risk," and explained that the result in Begay was dependent on the nature of the state offense at issue there, namely, that driving under the influence is a strict liability crime. Id. In contrast, since the state offense of vehicle flight in Sykes required knowing or intentional conduct, "risk levels provide[d] a categorical and manageable standard that suffice[d] to resolve the case." Id. Thus, the Court in Sykes held that Begay's "purposeful, violent, and aggressive formulation" is only dispositive in cases involving a strict liability, negligence, or recklessness offense.
The first requirement is satisfied in Spencer's case. It seems relatively apparent that "intentionally damag[ing] property and thereby recklessly plac[ing] another person in danger of death or bodily injury," Haw.Rev.Stat. § 708-820(1)(a) (1996), in the ordinary case, "involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another," U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a)(2). Although the two provisions are not identical, and the Sentencing Guidelines use the word "serious" while § 708-820(1)(a) does not, "metaphysical certainty" of physical injury is not required under the definition in the Sentencing Guidelines. James, 550 U.S. at 207, 127 S.Ct. 1586. Rather, the "residual provision speaks in terms of a `potential risk,'" and "potential" and "risk" are "inherently probabilistic concepts." Id. "Indeed, the combination of the two terms suggests that Congress intended to encompass possibilities even more contingent or remote than a simple `risk'...." Id. at 207-08, 127 S.Ct. 1586.
In contrast, the Hawaiian statutory provision requires the conduct in question to actually and recklessly place another person in danger of death or bodily injury. At least some risk of death or bodily injury must actually be created, and the risk must be significant enough that the creation of the risk is reckless, meaning that the defendant "consciously disregards a substantial and unjustifiable risk that his conduct will cause such a result." Haw. Rev.Stat. § 702-206(3)(c). Moreover, a risk is "substantial and unjustifiable" under the statute only if "the disregard of the risk involves a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a law-abiding person would observe in the same situation." Id. § 702-206(3)(d).
The second requirement — that the state offense be "`roughly similar, in kind as well as in degree of risk posed' to those offenses enumerated at the beginning of the residual clause,'" Park, 649 F.3d at 1178 (quoting Begay, 553 U.S. at 143, 128 S.Ct. 1581) — presents a more difficult question. Because a conviction under § 708-820(1)(a) requires intentional damage to property, in light of Sykes, our inquiry must be focused on risks. See Sykes, 131 S.Ct. at 2275-76; Park, 649 F.3d at 1178. That is, the question we must answer under the second prong is whether intentional property damage under § 708-820(1)(a), which involves a conscious disregard of substantial or unjustifiable risk that the damage will put someone in danger of death or bodily injury, involves
The risk involved in Hawaii's offense of criminal property damage in the first degree, under § 708-820(1)(a), is comparable to the risk involved in the enumerated offense of arson. The Supreme Court has indicated that arson is deemed a violent felony because it involves the "intentional release of a destructive force dangerous to others." Sykes, 131 S.Ct. at 2273. Likewise, the crime of property damage in the first degree requires intentional destruction of property, which necessarily involves the intentional release of a destructive force; § 708-820(1)(a) is just less clear about what that destructive force is. Although destroying property could potentially involve a force much less destructive or dangerous than fire, the language of § 708-820(1)(a) specifically requires that the force put a person "in danger of death or bodily injury." As explained, in so doing the perpetrator must consciously disregard a risk of death or bodily injury that is substantial or unjustifiable — in gross deviation from the standard a law-abiding person would follow. This is more risk than the offense of arson requires.
As defined in Begay, arson is "causing a fire or explosion with `the purpose of,' e.g., `destroying a building of another' or `damaging any property to collect insurance.'" Begay, 553 U.S. at 145, 128 S.Ct. 1581 (quoting ALI Model Penal Code § 220.1(1) (1985)) (alterations omitted). Similarly, we have described the modern, generic definition of arson as "willful and malicious burning of property." United States v. Velasquez-Reyes, 427 F.3d 1227, 1230 (9th Cir.2005) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also United States v. Doe, 136 F.3d 631, 634 (9th Cir.1998). These definitions of arson do not require that a person actually or recklessly be placed in danger of death or bodily injury. Rather, arson is classified as a dangerous felony because we know that fire is generally dangerous to others, see Sykes, 131 S.Ct. at 2273, and common sense indicates that setting fire to someone's home or a building increases the risk that a person will be injured by the fire.
In contrast, § 708-820(1)(a) includes the risk element in the statute — the intentional release of the destructive force damaging property must "place[] another person in danger of death or bodily injury." Like vehicular flight in Sykes, criminal property damage in the first degree is similar to arson because it "makes a lack of concern for the safety of property and persons ... an inherent part of the offense," such that the "perpetrator's indifference to the[] collateral consequences [of his actions] has violent — even lethal — potential for others." Id.
The structure of Hawaii's criminal property damage scheme also indicates that § 708-820(1)(a) was intended to prohibit actions creating risks comparable to, and even greater than, some crimes of arson. At the time Spencer was convicted, criminal property damage was divided into three degrees in Hawaii: it was criminal property damage in the first degree to "intentionally damage property" in a way that "recklessly places another person in danger of death or bodily injury," Haw. Rev.Stat. § 708-820(1)(a) (1996) (emphases added); it was criminal property damage in the second degree to "intentionally damage[] the property of another, without the other's consent, by the use of widely dangerous means," id. § 708-821(1)(a) (emphases added); and it was criminal property damage in the third degree to "recklessly damage[] the property of another, without the other's consent, by the use of widely dangerous means," id. § 708-822(1)(a) (emphasis added). The
The current Commentary to Hawaii's criminal property damage scheme explains that the legislature's objective in creating the criminal property damage scheme was to "provide a unified treatment of offenses relating to property damage" and "[d]ispense[ ] with ... archaic labels such as `arson.'" Haw.Rev.Stat. §§ 708-820 to -823 cmt. Under this unified scheme, criminal property damage in the second degree was intended to "incorporate[] the traditional offense of arson," id.,
The fact that criminal property damage in the second degree incorporated the traditional offense of arson and criminalized other offenses involving similarly destructive forces with risks comparable to arson strongly implies that criminal property damage in the first degree involves risks that are at least comparable to, if not greater than, some crimes of arson. Crimes are generally divided into degrees based on levels of severity. Although this might not necessarily mean that the risk of harm is greater in a first degree crime than in a second degree crime, the Commentary to the statute explains that this is the case for criminal property damage: the degrees of criminal property damage are "gradations of penalty depending both on: (1) the culpability of the actor (i.e., whether the actor acts intentionally or merely recklessly), [and] (2) the means
Id. The intent behind § 708-820(1)(a) was to separate the very worst forms of arson — those actually endangering a person — as well as other crimes involving damage to property that created a similar risk. Thus, not only does § 708-820(1)(a) criminalize risks comparable to arson, it criminalizes the very worst forms of arson, those with actual risk of injury.
Criminal property damage in the first degree thus involves risks that are, at least, comparable to arson.
In addition to arson, criminal property damage in the first degree also involves risk comparable to the enumerated crime of burglary. Burglary "is dangerous because it can end in confrontation leading to violence." Sykes, 131 S.Ct. at 2273; see also James, 550 U.S. at 199, 127 S.Ct. 1586 (reasoning that "the most relevant common attribute of [all of] the enumerated offenses ... is ... that all of these offenses, while not technically crimes against the person, nevertheless create significant risks of bodily injury or confrontation that might result in bodily injury"). With § 708-820(1)(a), criminal property damage in the first degree, putting someone in danger of injury by destroying property creates a clear "possibility of a face-to-face confrontation" because the person who is threatened with injury might defend himself or retaliate against the perpetrator. James, 550 U.S. at 203, 127 S.Ct. 1586. Moreover, with criminal property damage, there is more than just "the possibility [that there is in burglary] that an innocent person might appear while the crime is in progress," id.; since criminal property damage requires that a person is actually put at risk of death or bodily injury, a person must actually be nearby. In that sense, criminal property damage "presents more certain risk as a categorical matter than burglary." Sykes, 131 S.Ct. at 2274. "Unlike burglaries, [criminal property damage] by definitional necessity," id., occurs in a way that "places another person in danger of death or bodily injury," Haw.Rev.Stat. § 708-820(1)(a). Thus, criminal property damage in the first degree involves risks comparable to burglary in the ordinary case.
Admittedly, in the ACCA cases considered by the Supreme Court, it was much easier to conceptualize the "ordinary case" for the crimes at issue — attempted burglary (James), DUI (Begay), failure to report to prison (Chambers), and vehicle flight (Sykes). With this ordinary case in mind, additional information about the level of risk involved could be gleaned from common experience. See, e.g., Sykes, 131 S.Ct. at 2274 ("It is well known that when offenders use motor vehicles as their means of escape they create serious potential risks of physical injury to others.");
A comprehensive survey of Hawaii cases involving convictions under § 708-820(1)(a) also confirms that criminal property damage in the first degree involves risks of injury comparable to the enumerated offenses in the ordinary case.
The remaining Hawaii cases consisted of violent confrontations involving cars. See State v. Birdsall, 88 Haw. 1, 960 P.2d 729, 730 (1998) (defendant rammed a car with three women in it with his Jeep Cherokee); State v. Pang, 122 Haw. 353, 226 P.3d 523, 2010 WL 1226334, at *1-2 (Haw. Ct.App.2010) (unpublished) (defendant hit the roof of a car with a baseball bat and shattered the windows while a man was in it, threatening to kill him). These cases also involved risk of confrontation similar to burglary. Sykes, 131 S.Ct. at 2273-74.
Although Spencer can imagine various ways to violate the statute that involve risks that are not comparable to arson and burglary, this "does not disprove that [criminal property damage] is dangerous in the ordinary case. It is also possible to imagine committing [the enumerated offenses]... under circumstances that pose virtually no risk of physical injury" or confrontation. Id. at 2281 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted, emphasis added); see James, 550 U.S. at 207-08, 127 S.Ct. 1586. Here, the text of the statute, the statutory scheme, and Hawaii cases all confirm that criminal property damage involves risks comparable to arson and burglary in the ordinary case. Section § 708-820(1)(a) thus meets both of Park's prongs.
Because the risks involved in criminal property damage in the first degree present a serious potential risk of physical injury to another, and that risk is similar to the risks involved in arson and burglary in the ordinary case, we hold that Spencer's prior conviction under § 708-820(1)(a) was a crime of violence as defined in § 4B1.2(a)(2). Spencer is thus subject to the "career offender" enhancement under § 4B1.1 of the Sentencing Guidelines.
Spencer also argues that the residual clause in § 4B1.2(a)(2) of the Sentencing Guidelines is void for vagueness. This argument is foreclosed by Supreme Court precedent.
In James, the Court held that the residual provision in the ACCA was not unconstitutionally vague, explaining that although "ACCA requires judges to make sometimes difficult evaluations of the risks posed by different offenses," it "is not so indefinite as to prevent an ordinary person from understanding what conduct it prohibits."
Because precedents interpreting the ACCA residual clause apply to § 4B1.2(a)(2) of the Sentencing Guidelines, Crews, 621 F.3d at 852 n. 4, 855-56, § 4B1.2(a)(2)'s residual clause is not unconstitutionally vague.
We hold that the 1996 version of Hawaii Revised Statute § 708-820(1)(a), criminal property damage in the first degree, is categorically a crime of violence under the residual clause of § 4B1.2(a)(2) of the Sentencing Guidelines. Thus, the district court did not err in applying the "career offender" sentencing enhancement to Spencer under § 4B1.1. We also hold that Spencer's claim that the residual clause in § 4B1.2(a)(2) is unconstitutionally vague is foreclosed by Supreme Court precedent.