United States v. Richardson, No. 15-1403 (7th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseThe defendant pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute an illegal drug, 21 U.S.C. 846, 841(a), and was sentenced to 114 months in prison, below the career offender guidelines range of 151 to 188 months. His career offender status was based on 1997 offenses, when defendant was 19 years old, and involved small amounts of crack cocaine. The Seventh Circuit affirmed his sentence, rejecting arguments that it was based on unreliable evidence consisting of police reports of previous crimes that he’d committed, unrelated to the convictions that resulted in the career offender determination that increased his guidelines range. Those offenses, from 2001 and 2005, involved greater amounts of cocaine. A judge may allow his exercise of sentencing discretion to be influenced by a summary of police reports in the presentence report.
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