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Fourth Circuit demands consideration of acquitted conduct (in an unpublished order)

By Douglas A. Berman

Though I wish the ruling was just an April Fool's joke, I fear the a Fourth Circuit opinion today in US v. Ibanga, No. 06-4738 (4th Cir. Apr. 1, 2008) (available here), is all too real.  In Ibanga, the Fourth Circuit in an unpublished per curiam decision holds that a sentencing court "committed significant procedural error, ... by categorically excluding acquitted conduct from the information that it could consider in the sentencing process."  In other words, Ibanga essentially holds that a district court must consider acquitted conduct at sentencing even after Blakely and Booker. Regular readers may recall the terrific district court opinion in Ibanga (discussed here), in which District Judge Walter Kelley thoughtfully explained why he thought that acquitted conduct should no longer be used at sentencing now that Booker mandates that the provisions of 18 U...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on April 01, 2008 (boomark / email).