Sentencing decision is clearly erroneous where judge relies solely on drug quantity seized to calculate offense level and ignores other evidence

SENTENCING United States v. Todd, No. 06-6334, ___ F.3d ___ (10th Cir. Feb. 12, 2008)(W.D. Oklahoma). Government appeal of sentence for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(A), (b)(1)(C). HELD: District court’s sentencing range calculation was clearly erroneous where court ignored large quantity of methamphetamine defendant admitted to distributing and used only quantity of drugs seized from defendant to calculate applicable base offense level. While sentencing guidelines are now advisory, district court must still correctly calculate sentencing range because as matter of procedural regularity, the starting point for any sentencing decision must be a correctly calculated guidelines sentencing range. Read the opinion here.