Sentencing — reasonableness

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Criminal

Sentencing — reasonableness

Where the district court erroneously believed it was not permitted to consider sentences imposed on similarly situated defendants, the sentence is vacated.

“We find that the district court committed the second type of procedural error. The district court’s statements at the sentencing hearing indicate that the court thought it lacked the discretion to consider disparities among defendants as a matter of law. The district court stated that, ‘the Seventh Circuit has stated that any argument relating to unwarranted sentence disparities has to be presented on a national basis.’ In this case, the district court was unaware of its discretionary power and it refused to consider Prado’s proffered argument regarding disparities between defendants convicted under the Operation Tow Scam sting operation because it did not know it could do so. This amounts to a procedural error.”

Vacated and Remanded.

12-3762 U.S. v. Prado

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Der-Yeghiayan, J., Williams, J.