United States v. Jeffrey D. Sayre

I concur in the judgment of the Court because I agree that Sayre’s sentence should be affirmed. I write separately, however, because I believe that Sayre’s challenge to the constitutionality of the sentencing guidelines deserves only plain-error review.

The district court found that Sayre’s conduct in planning to murder a witness was an aggravating circumstance present to a degree not adequately taken into consideration by the Sentencing Commission and imposed a 4-level upward departure under U.S.S.G. § 5K2.0. That upward departure raised Sayre’s sentencing range from to 27-33 months to 41-51…