United States v. Brown, No. 13-3062 (D.C. Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseDefendant pled guilty to one count of distribution of pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2252A(a)(2) and subsequently appealed his 144 months of imprisonment followed by 240 months of supervised release. Because the court is unable to discern from the trial judge’s unparticularized in-court and written explanations why he found defendant’s conduct more harmful or egregious than that typically falling within the properly calculated Guidelines range of 97 to 121 months, the sentence violates 18 U.S.C. 3553(c)(2). Although defendant failed to preserve a section 3553(c)(2) challenge, the district court's clearly insufficient explanation of the sentence meets the four-part plain error test under the law of the circuit. Accordingly, the court exercised its discretion to notice the error and vacated the sentence, remanding for resentencing.
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