United States Fourth Circuit

Convictions on charges related to involvement in criminal drug conspiracy to distribute cocaine base are affirmed, but sentences are vacated where the district court committed statutory Booker error by treating the Sentencing Guidelines as mandatory.

Appellate Information

• Argued 10/25/2005
• Decided 07/11/2006
• Published 07/11/2006

Judges

• Before WIDENER, KING, and DUNCAN, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:  Rosemary Curran Scapicchio, Boston, Massachusetts;  Kathrine Haggard Hudgins, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellants.   Robert Hayden Bickerton, Assistant United States Attorney, Office of the United States Attorney, Charleston, South Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF:  Edwin W. Rowland, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, for Appellant Sean Thomas Sullivan.  J. Strom Thurmond, Jr., United States Attorney, Nancy C. Wicker, Assistant United States Attorney, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellee.