United States v. Esperanza Lopez

JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge:

In this Sentencing Guidelines (“Guidelines”) case we are confronted with a significant question concerning the appropriateness of departure from the Guidelines. Specifically, we must determine whether it is proper to disregard the Guidelines based upon the finding that a defendant’s criminal history score inadequately accounts for her past conduct and propensity to commit future crimes, when the sentencing court instead could have considered increasing the criminal history category by one or more levels to adjust for this situation.

I

Defendant Esperanza Lopez…