Human Trafficking—Life Sentence

Carlos Curtis has been sentenced to life in prison for being “the first person in the District [of Columbia] to be prosecuted for trafficking juveniles under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.”^[1] According to US District Court Judge Gladys Kessler, Mr. Curtis committed crimes that were “degrading beyond words,” and found him to be a “career criminal subject to the most severe federal sanction short of death.”^[2] Mr. Curtis has multiple sclerosis and is confined to a wheelchair, but Judge Kessler said “she had no doubt that he would return to pimping young girls if he ever got the chance.”^[3]

Mr. Curtis was convicted more than a year ago for enlisting a then-12-year-old girl as a prostitute, by telling her that he could care for her in ways that her drug-addicted mother, deceased father, and grandmother could not.^[4] He also enlisted a 17-year-old. In 1997, Mr. Curtis was convicted of “pimping an underage girl” in New Jersey, “a conviction that spawned considerable discussion…in court.”^[5]

Mr. Curtis “argued that the New Jersey conviction was not a violent offense and therefore should not count in determining whether [Mr.] Curtis was eligible for the life sentence,” but Judge Kessler “ruled that the earlier conviction was indeed a violent offense, which, coupled with a Maryland drug conviction and the [D.C] pimping conviction, made [him] eligible for a life sentence” because prostitution exposes her to beatings, assaults, and even murder.^[6]

To be classified as a career offender under the US Sentencing Guidelines, the defendant must be at least 18 years old at the time of the commission of the convicted offense, the crime must be a felony that is either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense, and the defendant must have at least 2 prior felony convictions of either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense.^[7] Being classified as a career offender automatically sets the defendant’s criminal history at category VI, and if his offense level is 37 (which has a range of 360 months to life in prison) the defendant will receive life in prison.^[8] The issue here, of course, is whether trafficking in persons is a “crime of violence,” because Mr. Curtis’s drug conviction obviously fits within the constructs of the career offender provisions. A crime of violence is defined as “any offense under federal or state law, punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year,” that “has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another,” or “is burglary of a dwelling, arson, or extortion, involves use of explosives, or otherwise involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another.”^[9] It is noted in the guidelines that these offenses include such things as murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, aggravated assault, forcible sex offenses, or the conduct “by its nature, presented a serious potential risk of physical injury to another.”^[10]

Even though recruiting minors for prostitution is not a listed offense under the definition of “crime of violence,” a number of courts have found that similar behavior qualifies. For example, the 11th Circuit found that a man who knowingly persuaded, induced, enticed, or coerced a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity qualified as a crime of violence.^[11] Likewise, the 9th Circuit found that transporting a minor in interstate commerce with the intent that the minor engage in prostitution was also a crime of violence.^[12] Furthermore, District Courts in the Western District of Oklahoma and the Southern District of Florida have turned down defendants’ motions challenging their sentences as career offenders on similar grounds.^[13]

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[1] Henri E. Cauvin, Life Term for Trafficking Juveniles, Wash. Post, Mar. 18, 2006.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] See U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 4B1.1(a).
[8] Id. § 4B1.1(b)(A).
[9] Id. § 4B1.2(a).
[10] Id. cmt. 1, para. 2.
[11] See United States v. Searcy, 418 F.3d 1193 (11th Cir. 2005).
[12] See United States v. Carter, 266 F.3d 1089 (9th Cir. 2001).
[13] See United States v. Williams, No. CR-04-81-C (W.D. Okla. 2006); United States v. Searcy, 299 F. Supp. 2d 1285 (S.D. Fla. 2003).