United States v. Vazquez-Mendez

The First Circuit vacated Defendant’s sentence for violating the terms of his supervised release and remanded the matter for resentencing, holding that the judge erred in citing rehabilitation needs and unproven domestic-violence allegations, and the errors were presumptively prejudicial.Defendant was sentenced to 168 months in prison in connection with his conviction of conspiracy to distribute cocaine followed by five years of supervised release. After Defendant began supervised release, the government filed a motion to revoke Defendant’s supervised release. Defendant admitted that he violated the terms of his release, and the district court imposed an upward variance, sentencing Defendant to two years’ imprisonment plus two years of supervised release. The First Circuit vacated the sentence and remanded the matter for resentencing, holding (1) the district court likely did rely on rehabilitation in fixing the sentence in a way that is at odds with the Sentencing Reform Act; and (2) the unproven domestic-violence charges are not to be considered upon resentencing. View "United States v. Vazquez-Mendez" on Justia Law