US v. Harrington, No. 18-30141 (12-24-19)(Fletcher w/Callahan & Christen). This is a double counting challenge that the 9th rejected. In an Indian country case, the 9th affirms a three level enhancement for strangling a spouse. The defendant pled to assault by strangling a spouse in Indian Country in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 113(a)(8). Sentencing is under the guideline for agg assault. It has a three level enhancement for strangling of a domestic partner. The 9th held this was not double counting because the agg assault guideline, 2A2.2, covers a wide range of agg assaults. It is not double counting because the offense level of agg assault does not exclusively cover this conduct.

Valiant effort by Jeremy Sporn of the Fed Def of Washington (Yakima).

The decision is here:

http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2019/12/24/18-30141.pdf