United States v. Torres-Melendez, No. 20-1029 (1st Cir. 2022)
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The First Circuit vacated Defendant's sentence imposed in connection with his plea of guilty to illegally possessing a machine gun and remanded the case for resentencing, holding that the judge's sentence "explanation" was reversible error.
The crime for which Defendant was convicted carried a top prison term of ten years. Defendant sought a term of twenty-four months, and the government sought thirty months. The judge varied the sentence to sixty months because, in part, Defendant had a track record of engaging in drug offenses and weapon violations. Defendant appealed, challenging the procedural and substantive reasonableness of the judge's decision. The First Circuit vacated the sentence, holding that because the trial judge gave "weight" to arrests not backed by "convictions or independent proof of conduct," Defendant's sentence could not stand.
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