Sentencing Guidelines

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Herbert W. Holder

Case No.: 23-1426

Officials: Wood, Kirsch, and Jackson-Akiwumi, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Sentencing Guidelines

The Seventh Circuit upheld a 240-month prison sentence imposed on Herbert Holder, a repeat offender convicted on three counts of distributing methamphetamine and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Holder appealed the sentence, citing procedural and substantive errors. He contended that the district court overlooked one of his arguments for leniency, specifically, an assault he had recently endured in jail, and failed to adequately consider his mitigating factors.

The court determined that the district court had sufficiently addressed Holder’s jail assault. During the sentencing proceedings, the court engaged in a dialogue with Holder regarding the assault and recognized it as one of his mitigating factors when explaining its sentencing rationale. Additionally, the Court of Appeals observed that the district court had weighed the gravity of Holder’s offenses and his criminal background against mitigating circumstances, such as his drug addiction, the loss of his mother, the passage of time since his prior convictions, and his recent jail assault.

Consequently, the court found that Holder had not presented compelling evidence to rebut the “nearly irrebuttable presumption” that his sentence below the guidelines was reasonable.

Affirmed.

Decided 03/05/24

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