United States v. Paul Jerome Spiers

OPINION

LEWIS, Circuit Judge.

This appeal calls upon us to clarify our recent holding in United States v. Holifield, 53 F.3d 11 (3d Cir.1995), in which we addressed the question of a district court’s discretion to impose a concurrent or consecutive sentence under section 5G1.3(c) of the United States Sentencing Guidelines. In Holifield, we held that “although the district court must calculate the ‘reasonable incremental punishment’ according to the [sentencing guidelines’] methodology, it need not impose that penalty.” Id. at 16-17. Today, we reaffirm that a district court must determine the…