Khang

This is a sentencing guidelines case. It raises questions of whether the increase for obstruction of justice and the decrease for acceptance of responsibility can be imposed in the same case, and whether the third point for acceptance of responsibility can be awarded to equalize sentences. Although one appellant also claims that insufficient-consideration was given to a departure downward based on cultural differences between his native culture and American society, this issue is a red herring, because the district court found that there was no factual basis for such a departure.

Lee Khang and Say Pha Khang are Hmong. They are half brothers, born and brought up in Laos. They came to the United States, one as a teenager and the other in his thirties. They had lived in the United States for 10 or 15 years, when they were caught at Los Angeles International Airport smuggling 7.8 kilograms of opium into the country on their way home from Thailand. The opium was hidden in the walls of two fire-protective file boxes and 30 hollowed-out D cell batteries.

I. Analysis.

A. Obstruction of Justice.

Both appellants claim that the district court erred in adjusting their offense level upward…