Judicial factfinding provisions of sentencing guidelines remain intact post-Booker

SENTENCING United States v. Lynch, No. 04-5111, ___ F.3d ___ (10th Cir. Feb. 11, 2005)(N.D. Oklahoma). Government appeal of sentence for manufacture and possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(B)(iii). HELD: Remedial majority in United States v. Booker, 125 S.Ct. 738 (2005), rejected argument that Court’s separate Sixth Amendment holding be engrafted on to federal sentencing guidelines and that provisions of guidelines allowing judicial factfinding be excised. Thus, sentence based on district court’s reasoning that every factor influencing sentence must be proven beyond reasonable doubt or admitted by defendant was erroneous to extent that resulting sentence was based solely on drug quantities admitted by defendant without consideration of additional drug quantities found by judge by preponderance of evidence at sentencing. Remanded to permit government or defendant to seek resentencing in accordance with standards set out in Booker. Read the opinion here.