United States v. Ferguson

Ferguson pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and was sentenced to 84 months’ imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release. During that term of supervision, the U.S. Probation Office informed the court that Ferguson had been convicted in the Delaware County Court on seven counts of aggravated indecent assault on a person less than 13 years old, one count of criminal solicitation of a person less than 13 years old, and eight counts of indecent assault on a person less than 13 years old. Ferguson was sentenced to 10-20 years’ confinement in state custody, to be followed by seven years’ probation. Ferguson did not contest that he had violated the conditions of his supervised release. Although Ferguson’s violation carried a range of 30-37 months’ imprisonment under the USSG, the statutory maximum sentence was 24 months’ imprisonment followed by three years of supervision. In imposing sentence, the court described Ferguson’s arrest record and, based on his “long and serious criminal history,” imposed a sentence of 24 months imprisonment, consecutive to his state sentence, with no supervised release to follow. Neither party objected. The Third Circuit affirmed. Although the court described Ferguson’s arrest record, its characterization of his criminal history was accurate; the court did not really on the history of arrests alone. View "United States v. Ferguson" on Justia Law