Setser v. United States

The Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 seeks to reform federal sentencing practices by creating a Federal Sentencing Commission instructed to develop and to promulgate Federal Sentencing Guidelines. The provision of the Act here at issue concerns “ Multiple sentences.” See 18 U. S. C. § 8584. It brings into focus a difficult Guidelines-related problem: How should a federal judge sentence an offender where the offender has been convicted of having violated several different statutes? The convictions may have taken place all at the same time. Or, some convictions might have taken place at an earlier…