United States v. Randall

The Fifth Circuit vacated defendant's sentence imposed after he pleaded guilty to production, transportation, and possession of child pornography, as well as committing a felony offense involving a minor while being required to register as a sex offender. The court held that the district court plainly erred by applying USSG 2G2.1(d)(1) to create five "pseudo counts" of production of child pornography that were factored into the calculation of his total offense level. Considering that the Guidelines range resulting from the district court's offense level calculation was life imprisonment, with an aggregate sentence of 45 years having been imposed, and that the appropriate remedy is resentencing, which can be accomplish fairly quickly and without extraordinary expense, the court exercised its discretion to remedy the calculation error. Accordingly, the court remanded for resentencing. View "United States v. Randall" on Justia Law