Prohibiting Punishment of Acquitted Conduct Act of 2021

II Calendar No. 97 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 601 To amend section 3661 of title 18, United States Code, to prohibit the consideration of acquitted conduct at sentencing. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MARCH 4, 2021 Mr. DURBIN (for himself, Mr. GRASSLEY, Mr. LEAHY, Mr. LEE, Mr. BOOKER, Mr. TILLIS, Ms. KLOBUCHAR, and Mr. OSSOFF) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary JULY 12, 2021 Reported by Mr. DURBIN, with an amendment [Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] A BILL To amend section 3661 of title 18, United States Code, to prohibit the consideration of acquitted conduct at sen- tencing. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Prohibiting Punish- 4 ment of Acquitted Conduct Act of 2021’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:21 Jul 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S601.RS S601 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 601 RS SEC. 2. ACQUITTED CONDUCT AT SENTENCING. 1 (a) USE OF INFORMATION FOR SENTENCING.— 2 (1) AMENDMENT.—Section 3661 of title 18, 3 United States Code, is amended by inserting ‘‘, ex- 4 cept that a court of the United States shall not con- 5 sider, except for purposes of mitigating a sentence, 6 acquitted conduct under this section’’ before the pe- 7 riod at the end. 8 (2) APPLICABILITY.—The amendment made by 9 paragraph (1) shall apply only to a judgment en- 10 tered on or after the date of enactment of this Act. 11 (b) DEFINITIONS.—Section 3673 of title 18, United 12 States Code, is amended— 13 (1) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by 14 striking ‘‘As’’ and inserting the following: 15 ‘‘(a) As’’; and 16 (2) by adding at the end the following: 17 ‘‘(b) As used in this chapter, the term ‘acquitted con- 18 duct’ means— 19 ‘‘(1) an act— 20 ‘‘(A) for which a person was criminally 21 charged and adjudicated not guilty after trial in 22 a Federal, State, or Tribal court; or 23 ‘‘(B) in the case of a juvenile, that was 24 charged and for which the juvenile was found 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:21 Jul 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6401 E:\BILLS\S601.RS S601 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 601 RS not responsible after a juvenile adjudication 1 hearing; or 2 ‘‘(2) any act underlying a criminal charge or ju- 3 venile information dismissed— 4 ‘‘(A) in a Federal court upon a motion for 5 acquittal under rule 29 of the Federal Rules of 6 Criminal Procedure; or 7 ‘‘(B) in a State or Tribal court upon a mo- 8 tion for acquittal or an analogous motion under 9 the applicable State or Tribal rule of criminal 10 procedure.’’. 11 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 12 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Prohibiting Punishment 13 of Acquitted Conduct Act of 2021’’. 14 SEC. 2. ACQUITTED CONDUCT AT SENTENCING. 15 (a) USE OF INFORMATION FOR SENTENCING.— 16 (1) AMENDMENT.—Section 3661 of title 18, 17 United States Code, is amended by inserting ‘‘, except 18 that a court of the United States shall not consider, 19 except for purposes of mitigating a sentence, acquitted 20 conduct under this section’’ before the period at the 21 end. 22 (2) APPLICABILITY.—The amendment made by 23 paragraph (1) shall apply only to a judgment entered 24 on or after the date of enactment of this Act. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:21 Jul 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S601.RS S601 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 601 RS (b) DEFINITIONS.—Section 3673 of title 18, United 1 States Code, is amended— 2 (1) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by 3 striking ‘‘As’’ and inserting the following: 4 ‘‘(a) As’’; and 5 (2) by adding at the end the following: 6 ‘‘(b) As used in this chapter, the term ‘acquitted con- 7 duct’— 8 ‘‘(1) means— 9 ‘‘(A) an act— 10 ‘‘(i) for which a person was criminally 11 charged and adjudicated not guilty after 12 trial in a Federal, State, military, or Trib- 13 al court; or 14 ‘‘(ii) in the case of a juvenile, that was 15 charged and for which the juvenile was 16 found not responsible after a juvenile adju- 17 dication hearing; or 18 ‘‘(B) any act underlying a criminal charge 19 or juvenile information dismissed— 20 ‘‘(i) in a Federal court upon a motion 21 for acquittal under rule 29 of the Federal 22 Rules of Criminal Procedure; or 23 ‘‘(ii) in a State, military, or Tribal 24 court upon a motion for acquittal or an 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:21 Jul 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S601.RS S601 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 601 RS analogous motion under the applicable 1 State, military, or Tribal rule of criminal 2 procedure; and 3 ‘‘(2) does not include an act for which a person 4 was criminally charged and convicted.’’. 5 (c) VICTIMS’ RIGHTS.—Section 3661 of title 18, 6 United States Code, as amended by subsection (a) of this 7 section, is amended— 8 (1) by striking ‘‘No limitation’’ and inserting 9 the following: 10 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Except as described in subsection 11 (b), no limitation’’; and 12 (2) by adding at the end the following: 13 ‘‘(b) CONSIDERATION OF ACQUITTED CONDUCT.—In 14 determining an appropriate sentence, a court of the United 15 States shall not consider acquitted conduct under this sec- 16 tion for the purposes of determining the appropriate sen- 17 tencing range pursuant to the United States Sentencing 18 Guidelines, or to sentence a person outside of that sen- 19 tencing range, except for the purposes of mitigation. 20 ‘‘(c) VICTIMS’ RIGHTS.—Nothing in this section shall 21 limit the rights of a victim under section 3771 (commonly 22 known as the ‘Crime Victims’ Rights Act’).’’. 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:21 Jul 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6203 E:\BILLS\S601.RS S601 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS Calendar No. 97 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 601 A BILL To amend section 3661 of title 18, United States Code, to prohibit the consideration of acquitted conduct at sentencing. JULY 12, 2021 Reported with an amendment VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:21 Jul 13, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6651 Sfmt 6651 E:\BILLS\S601.RS S601 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS