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09-2520 U.S. v. Aldridge

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//April 22, 2011//

09-2520 U.S. v. Aldridge

By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//April 22, 2011//

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Sentencing
Guideline range

When imposing a sentence outside of the applicable guideline range, the district court should explain the reason with reference to the sec. 3553(a) factors, not by reference to a guideline range the court thinks more appropriately reflects the defendant’s conduct.

“The district court acknowledged that the probation officer had correctly identified both the offense level and the criminal history category applicable to Aldridge’s advisory guidelines range. What the court should have done at that point was not to re-jigger the advisory guidelines range, but instead to have gone on to apply the § 3553(a) factors to determine the appropriate sentence for Aldridge. Gall, 552 U.S. at 49-50. In the course of its consideration of the § 3553(a) factors, the court could have discussed any reasons why it thought that Aldridge’s degree of culpability and criminal history dictated a sentence outside the guidelines range. See 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(1) (directing district courts in sentencing to consider ‘the nature and circumstances of the offense and the history and characteristics of the defendant’). The court here committed a procedural error when it attempted to ‘correct’ a presentencing report that it acknowledged had ‘technically’ come to the right offense level and criminal history category. Our review of the court’s explanation for its sentence, however, convinces us that this error was harmless. United States v. Anderson, 517 F.3d 953, 965 (7th Cir. 2008) (applying harmless-error analysis to sentencing).”

Affirmed.

09-2520 U.S. v. Aldridge

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Zagel, J., Wood, J.

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