United States v. Waltower, No. 09-3967 (7th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseDefendant was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm (18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1)). He was acquitted of several other drug-related offenses, but the district court took the underlying (acquitted) conduct into consideration at sentencing and imposed the statutory maximum sentence of 120 months. The Seventh Circuit affirmed. If a sentence does not exceed the statutory maximum, there is no Sixth Amendment concern with the advisory guidelines scheme. Defendant was only punished for the crime for which he was convicted; the acquitted charges were used only to determine the (advisory) punishment. At that point, the district judge was free to impose any sentence so long as it was reasonable. The court also rejected an argument based on allegedly incriminating statements defendant made after his arrest, stating that the argument was most like an ineffective assistance argument and did not establish error.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on July 20, 2011.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on August 5, 2011.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.