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Eighth Circuit affirms long sentence based on "hypothetical criminal-history points" and dismissed murder charge

By Douglas A. Berman

The Eighth Circuit has a very interesting sentencing ruling today in United States v. Azure, No. 08-3663 (8th Cir. Mar. 4, 2010) (available here).  The relatively short opinion covers a relatively large number of sentencing issues, and here is how it starts: On remand from a prior appeal, the district court sentenced Tamara Azure (?Wind?) to 180 months of imprisonment on two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1153 and 113(a)(3).  In doing so, the district court departed upwardly based on an under-representative criminal history.  The court also made an express factual finding that Wind committed an execution-style murder on a different occasion, as alleged in a dismissed count. The court reached its overall sentence by imposing consecutive sentences on the two counts...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on March 04, 2010 (boomark / email).