U.S. v. Gill

Defendant was entitled to new sentencing hearing on drug conspiracy charge, where Dist. Ct., in imposing 280-month term of incarceration, increased defendant’s criminal history score by five points (which, in turn, increased applicable sentencing guideline) based on defendant’s prior Illinois aggravated unlawful use of weapon (AUUW) conviction under circumstances where applicable portions of AUUW statute had been found to be unconstitutional by Seventh Circuit and Illinois Supreme Court. Ct. rejected govt.’s argument that defendant had waived said issue by failing to raise it during prior appeal, since: (1) defendant’s failure to raise issue constituted mere forfeiture of issue that was subject to plain-error analysis because there was no evidence that defendant’s failure to raise issue was deliberate; and (2) instant sentence was based on incorrect history score, which constituted plain error. Also, defendant was entitled to remand for re-determination of terms of supervised release, where Dist. Ct. had failed to make adequate findings to support said terms.