United States v. Carter

Under U.S.S.G. § 5G1.3(b)(l), a district court must reduce a defendant’s sentence to account for time the defendant has already served in state custody for the same criminal conduct. Contrary to the plain direction of § 5G1.3(b)(l), the district court in this case explicitly refused to credit the twenty-four months Christopher Carter had served in state court on the charges underlying his federal conviction. The district court’s miscalculation of Carter’s Guidelines range constituted significant procedural error. Because the record shows the district court’s error was not harmless, I dissent…