United States First Circuit

In this case, defendant pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime in violation of 18 U.S.C. section 924(c)(1)(A) and was sentenced to 108 months. Defendant challenges his sentence. The judgment is affirmed, where: 1) though their analysis was brief, the district court did not plainly fail to consider the section 3553(a) sentencing factors; 2) the district court was permitted to consider the sincerity of defendant's explanation for his conduct, as he placed his sincerity at issue; and 3) the imposition of a sentence 48 months above the 60 months guideline sentence was substantively reasonable, as defendant's lack of sincerity in attributing his involvement in the offense to ignorance was relevant to assessing the need for deterrence and his capacity for rehabilitation, and other factors (including defendant's criminal history) combined to provide a plausible rationale for the variant sentence.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/13/2015
• Published 02/13/2015

Judges

• Kayatta

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel