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Split Third Circuit ruling on guideline calculation errors after Booker

By Douglas A. Berman

The Third Circuit today issued a long split-panel opinion in US v. Langford, No. 06-2774 (3d Cir. Feb. 22, 2008) (available here), which provides yet another remind of how many tough issues Booker created for appellate courts trying to make sentence of reasonableness review.  Here is the basic holding in Langford as stated at the start of the majority's opinion: Langford argues that the District Court improperly calculated his criminal history score and consequently chose an erroneous Sentencing Guidelines range as the first step in the sentencing process, and that he should therefore be resentenced. The government urges that the error is harmless because the applicable Guidelines range overlaps with the correct range.  The application of the harmless error standard to a sentence in this fact setting is an issue of first impression in our Court...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on February 22, 2008 (boomark / email).