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Math is Hard

By Melody Evans and Kirk Redmond

Blatantly stealing from other blogs because I don't have anything quasi-original today, this interesting case is straight from Appellate Law and Practice, a very nice blog that we've added to our blog roll.One lesson here is that waivers should not deter us from reviewing for basic errors such as these. For example, in a Tenth Circuit remand today, the district court followed the PSR in applying a 151 months sentence; the PSR, however, listed the wrong guideline range, and no one caught it at sentencing. Onto the math lesson:CA1: mathematical error at sentencing was plain error and appeal waiver was unenforceable US v. McCoy, No. 06-2138. This is a pretty straight-forward mortgage fraud case. At sentencing, pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b)(1) (2001), the District Court judge calculated the loss by ?subtracting from the amounts of the fraudulently obtained mortgage loans the amounts that the conspirators had paid for the properties--treating the latter as a proxy for their value as security...continue to full post

Full post as published by Kansas Federal Defender on November 30, 2007 (boomark / email).