A robbery defendant didn’t physically restrain his victims by waving a gun at them and telling them not to move, the Seventh Circuit said July 18.
The Second, Fifth, Ninth, and D.C. circuits have reached the same conclusion as U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Chief Judge Diane P. Wood, but the First, Fourth, Tenth, and Eleventh circuits say brandishing a gun is a physical restraint sufficient to trigger the sentence enhancement.
Under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, the enhancement is appropriate if the defendant “physically restrained” his victim during a robbery. The commentary to the guidelines defines physically...