United States Third Circuit

A sentence for bank robbery, armed bank robbery, and carrying and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence is vacated and remanded. Given the importance of a correct Sentencing Guidelines calculation both to the sentencing process that district courts are required to conduct and to the circuit court's ability to carry out reasonableness review, the use of an erroneous Guidelines range at sentencing will typically require reversal under 18 U.S.C. section 3742(f). In such circumstances, a remand for resentencing will occur unless the record shows that the erroneous Guidelines calculation did not affect the sentencing process and the sentence ultimately imposed. Finally, such sentencing error is not harmless simply because sentence imposed falls into the "overlap" between the incorrect Guidelines range used by the sentencing court and the correct Guidelines range.

Appellate Information

• Argued 11/02/2007
• Decided 02/22/2008
• Published 02/22/2008

Judges

• Before:  RENDELL, WEIS and NYGAARD, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Third Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Renee Pietropaolo, [Argued], Kimberly R. Brunson, Office of Federal Public Defender, Pittsburgh, PA, for Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Robert L. Eberhardt, Rebecca R. Haywood, [Argued], Office of the U.S. Attorney, Pittsburgh, PA, for Appellee.