Cultural Resources Protection Law - Using the United States Sentencing Guidelines 2B1.5

The sessions shown below address activities associated with Using the United States Sentencing Guidelines 2B1.5. There are sessions addressing Introduction, Sentencing Guidelines, Specialty Protected Heritage Locations and the Guideline Application Example.

Using the the United States Sentencing Guidelines 2B1.5

  1. Introduction ( 02:59)Description:You are about to view a presentation on Cultural Resources Protection Law titled "Using the United States Sentencing Guideline 2B1.5." The presenter is Paula Desio. The United States Sentencing Commission recognized the importance of the unique nature of cultural heritage resources when in 2002 it promulgated a dedicated guideline to assist federal judges in sentencing defendants convicted of cultural heritage resource crimes. This guideline was the product of several years of coordinated analysis and discussion among the National Park Service, Bureau of Indian Affairs, tribal representatives, the Department of State, museum organizations, and sentencing commission staff.
  • Transcript: Introduction
  2. Sentencing Guidelines  (07:59)Description: The sentencing guidelines basically set the parameters that a judge must consult when deciding how to sentence a defendant in federal court for a federal crime. Cultural heritage resource crimes became the subject of the commission's interest a number of years ago, and after much public input and research and consultation with experts, the Sentencing Commission promulgated this guideline that will cover a multitude of offenses that destroy or damage the nation's cultural heritage resources. I'm going to talk to you today about how that sentence is calculated and explain the policy behind the commission's decisions for its determination in this regard.

  • Transcript: Sentencing Guidelines
  3. Specially Protected Heritage Locations  (01:58)Description: Now let's talk about ARPA specifically and the kinds of property that we can forfeit. Under ARPA there are basically three federal offenses for which a person could be found guilty or which could serve as the basis for a civil forfeiture action. In layman's terms, let's say that -- the three crimes would be described this way: First, it's a crime to dig up, to remove or to damage archaeological resources that are found on public lands or on Indian land without a permit. The actual removal or damage of the resource. Second, it's a federal offense to buy or to sell the archaeological resource that has previously been removed from the public or Indian land in violation of ARPA or in violation of some other federal law. And the third crime is similar. It is an offense to buy or to sell the archaeological resource that was dug up or removed from the federal land, public land or private land in violation of state law. Notice in that last instance it also includes property removed from private land, and the violation would be of state law. So, you have these three separate offenses, all of which are federal criminal offenses under Title 16 of the U.S. Code.

  • Transcript: Specially Protected Heritage Locations
  4. Guideline Application Example (12:03)Description: We're going to assume for purposes of this example that the defendant has convictions under both ARPA, the Archaeological Resource Protection Act, and 18 U.S.C. 1361, which is one of the general laws entitled "Theft of Government Property."

  • Transcript: Guideline Application Example

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