US v. Solomon Powell, No. 09-4012 (4th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseDefendant was convicted of mail fraud, wire fraud, and attempted destruction of evidence where he was in the business of selling merchandise over the Internet and then pocketing the money without sending along the products. At issue was whether the district court violated defendant's Confrontation Clause rights by relying on out-of-court statements of people who did not testify, and were never cross-examined, in determining that defendant harmed more than ten victims and that he caused just shy of $200,000 in losses. The court affirmed the judgment and held that the Confrontation Clause did not apply at sentencing proceedings like defendant's. The court concluded that its holding respected the traditional distinction between trial and sentencing, the sentencing court's need to consider a wide variety of evidence in choosing an appropriate sentence, and the sentencing judge's ability to properly evaluate that evidence. The court also held that defendant failed to demonstrate that the district court's failure to explain sentencing factors affected his substantial rights.
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